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Stories of Black Folk 

for 

Little Folk 



By BESSIE LANDRgM 



1923 - 

A. B. CALDWELL PUBLISHING CO. 
Atlanta, Ga. 






1923 

(Copyright) 

A. B. CALDWELL PUB. CO. 
Atlanta, Georgia. 




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ClA70t>907 



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PREFACE 

The aim of this book is fourfold: to provide the 
youth with some facts of Negro history; to supply 
Elementary Schools with selections from standard 
works of Negro authors; to create within children 
the desire to admire and to study more deeply the 
achievements of the Black Folk ; and to inspire at the 
proper time the rising generation of future men and 
women with information of those, who, in humility 
and in spite of obstacles, arose from lowlv nositions 
to those of might and power. 

The book affords many opportunities for re- 
search by the pupils while studying the subordinate 
characters, facts and events of its stories. 

This material may be correlated with lessons in 
reading, history, civics, literature and language. 

B. L. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Allen, Richard £ 75 

Attucks, Crispus . 70 

Bannecker, Benjamin 76 

Bryan, Andrew t : 73 

Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel 31 

Dessalines, Jean Jacques 62 

Douglass, Frederick 85 

Dumas, Alexandre.... 35 

Dunbar, Paul Laurence 7 

Ellis, Georoe Washington 26 

L'Ouverture, Toussaint 45 

Patrocinio, Jose Do ..; 69 

Pushkin, Alexander 41 

Roberts, Joseph Jenkin 67 

Truth, Sojourner 79 

Washington, Booker T. 95 

Wheatley, Phillis 19 





FREDERICK DOUGLASS 

(See Page 85) 



PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR 

Now, on the twenty-seventh of June in the year 
1872, there was born in Dayton, Ohio, the Black 
Prince, who had a gift that was a secret to the world, 
and was more to be desired than Aladdin's lamp or 
little Gluck's golden river; for, aside from being the 
means of his becoming a king, it was a blessing to 
the earth, and, furthermore, if revealed and culti- 
vated by his guardian, the only one capable of using 
it, his gift was to become the glory of his people, the 
merry Black Folk. But the wee, wee Black Prince 
was in the power of the giant, which, since the de- 
parture of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, 
had been as prone to rob every prince under his au- 
thority — and his authority had been over all races, 
and particularly over the merry Black Folk — of the 
glory of his gift as the family of poisons had been 
to rob any spring of its purity. Hence, before the 
wee, wee Black Prince was a moment old, he had 
been bound by the giant where, by being estranged 
from his guardian, and by being kept as obscurely 
in the world as an entrapped robin dying in the 
depths of the wood, he was likely to live and die 
without so much as knowing that he had a gift. 

Therefore the wee, wee Black Prince soon an- 
nounced his arrival with a lusty cry right in the 
heart of the biT, busy world where he received no 
more princely attention than if he had been the most 
ordinary babv thereabouts. For he had nothing to 
distinguish himself. He neither sprang from a line 
of kings nor began life in a castle of marble; he 
neither had a chest of royal robes nor the heritage 
of a crown of gold. Instead, he came from a pure 
African stock, which, believing in witches and weird 



S STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



things and knowing the songs of the winds and 
waters of their native land, had as bequests to be 
handed down to the Black Prince their abundant 
powers to imagine and to sing — heritages to shine 
as sunbeams in the lowly abode where the Prince 
began living humbly but happily with his parents, 
who, though as poor as mice in a church and as ig- 
norant as children just learning to read, made his 
lowly abode a castle of love. For aside from being 
as proud of their son and as desirous of his sharing 
the glories of earth as if they had been financiers 
having interests on Wall Street, they loved him as 
if he had been a lord, and named him accordingly. 
For Joshua, his father, who was something of a 
prophet, once said to his wife, "Matilda, the Bible 
says Paul was a great man. This child will be great 
some day and do you honor." Hence, the wee Black 
Prince was named Paul Laurence in honor of a 
friend of his parents and the Apostle Paul to insure 
the inspiration of beloved and great people. 

By and by, Prince Paul was able to crawl upon 
his father's knee and say, "Please tell me a story." 
Then Joshua would tell him stories by which he 
would teach him the dialect and customs of the merry 
Black Folk. Often he told him about his escape from 
the South as a runaway slave. Sometimes he was 
interrupted in that story by Matilda's saying, "But 
I left the South as a freeman, after President Lin- 
coln had issued his Emancipation Proclamation." 
Sometimes, Joshua either sat quietly using his hands 
to make shadows on the wall or sat patting his feet 
in time to the nasal tones which he drawled forth, 
and which he said, "Sounded like the song of a banjo 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 9 



contrived and bowed by a son of the merry Blacks." 
Whenever Prince Paul wanted to sit long after twi- 
light listening to more stories, or another song of 
the banjo or seeing more shadows darting upon the 
wall, Joshua would say, "The Boogah Man eats little 
boys who are awake when the stars are shining in 
the night." At that, the Prince would say his 
prayers, get into bed, and enter Dreamland, breath- 
ing heavily and slowly in time to a melody which 
was being sung sweetly enough by his mother for 
him to think that she could sing better than anybody 
else on earth. 

By and by, Prince Paul became a school-boy. And 
in the public school where he soon learned to read 
and write, he began writing something so beautiful 
that he set his classmates to telling their parents, 
"Paul Laurence, a black boy in our class, writes 
poetry — and he is only seven years old!" As Prince 
Paul learned more about his favorite subjects, spell- 
ing, grammar and literature, he wrote better poems, 
which, when praised by his teachers, made him too 
happy to cry about the expensive Christmas trees, 
fine, new clothes to wear on Easter Sabbaths, bun- 
dles of explosives to enliven the "Glorious Fourth" 
or any other joy of childhood, that he never had. 
But those happy days, during which he was as happy 
as old King Cole ever dared to be, passed away once 
during the year 1884, when, with uncontrollable 
tears and an ache in his heart, he led neighbors and 
friends to a quiet room to look upon Joshua, who lay 
stretched between white sheets upon a low couch 
with his hands folded upon his chest and his features 
molded into a smile — just as death had left him. 



10 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



Thereafter Prince Paul and his mother struggled 
to keep the wolf from their door. To do so they en- 
dured hardships that they never forgot. On every 
day except the Sabbath, Matilda washed and ironed 
from morning till night. Meanwhile, before and 
after school hours, Prince Paul ran about the streets 
as a newsboy and cried, "Want a paper? Buy a 
paper, please !" Thus they supported themselves. 

However, Prince Paul was winning glory at 
school. Once he edited the student paper, and in the 
year 1891 when he was graduated from the Steel 
High School, he started the townfolk to saying, 
"Paul Laurence is a genius; He wrote the song for 
his class — and it is a real poem !" 

Of course Prince Paul was too poor to go to col- 
lege. So, in order to support his mother and him- 
self, he determined to become a secretary. But as 
he was a child of the Black Folk, he had to become 
a bell-boy. 

He, however, kept studying and writing poetry as 
often as he had time to do so. He liked to write 
about the merry Black Folk in the style and dialect 
of the stories that he had heard from Joshua. 

In consequence of his study, he began reaping 
blessings that seemed to have been miracles. Once, 
right in the elevator where he worked, he faced 
three American scholars. 

"Are you Paul, the poet?" asked the scholars. 

"I am Paul — and I try to write poems," answered 
Prince Paul. 

"Will you tell us about yourself?" asked the 
scholars. "Where were you born? Where do you 
live? Who are your people?" 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 11 



Then Prince Paul told them about Joshua and 
the stories he had told him ; he told them about Ma- 
tilda and her hardships; and about himself and his 
poetry. 

After listening to Prince Paul, the scholars were 
sure that he was a poet. So they praised his works, 
and when they left him, they carried some of his 
poems away with them. 

A few weeks afterwards, Prince Paul thrust a 
newspaper before Matilda and cried, "Oh, ma, those 
scholars had the poems that I gave them published 
in this big American paper and in the leading papers 
of England!" 

After a few months, he said to her, "Ma, I am 
going to have a book published." 

Poor Prince Paul had no money to pay for the 
publishing of his book, and feeling like a friendless 
beggar, he was about to stop hoping to see it in print, 
because he had failed to have it published on credit, 
when he met a kind publisher who, upon noting his 
sadness, asked, "What is the matter, Paul?" 

Prince Paul answered his question. Then the 
manager took his poems, and Prince Paul hurried 
away to say to Matilda, "Oh, ma, they are going to 
print my book !" 

He received his book, "Oak and Ivy," from the 
publisher during the year 1892. And he soon earned 
enough money by selling copies of it to pay for its 
publication. 

During that year, he began receiving invitations 
to recite his works before distinguished audiences in 
Dayton, Detroit, Toledo, Chicago and in many other 
cities, where he went with barely railroad fare, and 



12 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



whence he returned with even less money, unless he 
had received recompense for his reading. 

In fact, at that time, the poor Prince was meeting 
the giant every day. He was almost unknown, and 
when he had published his second book, "Majors and 
Minor," he began selling a few copies of it when he 
needed to sell thousands of them, for he was trying 
to support himself and his mother and buy a home. 

But just when the old giant was crushing the 
Prince to death, Dr. William Dean Howells, a famous 
American journalist and writer, read "Majors and 
Minor." Dr. Howells liked the book, and expressed 
his appreciation of it in an article that he had pub- 
lished in an edition of "Harper's Weekly." His ar- 
ticle was read in every important country in the 
world. 

"Mr. Howells has made you famous," a friend 
of the Prince said to him. 

And he had. As soon as Mr. Howells' article had 
been read, people in America and abroad began buy- 
ing "Oak and Ivy" and "Majors and Minor." 

Prince Paul was as happy when he was told of 
the sale of his books, as if he had found his bag of 
gold at the end of the rain-bow. Of course he was 
grateful to Mr. Howells, so when he was having pub- 
lished his book, "Lyrics of Lowly Life," its introduc- 
tion was written by Mr. Howells. 

Thousands of people read his books. Soon Prince 
Paul was known in many parts of the world as Paul 
Laurence Dunbar, the Afro-American poet. He re- 
cited his "Little Brown Baby," "When de Co'n 
Pone's Hot," "Christmas Is a-Cumin'," "When Malin- 
dy Sings," "Ode to Ethiopia," and his other famous 



FOR LITTL E FOLK 13 

works to thousands of people in America and in Eng- 
land. He wrote twelve volumes of poetry, three 
novels and five collections of short stories. Some of 
the world's best thinkers spoke of him as follows: 

"I regard Paul Dunbar as the most promising 
young colored man in America," said Frederick 
Douglass, the Afro-American statesman and orator. 

"So far as I could remember, Paul Dunbar was 
the only man of pure African blood and American 
civilization to feel the Negro life aesthetically and 
express it lyrically. * * * I feel that he has made 
the strongest claim for the Negro in English litera- 
ture, that the Negro has made," wrote Mr. Howells 
in his introduction in "Lyrics of Lowly Life." 

"While I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Dunbar 
only once or twice, I was a great admirer of his 
poetry and prose," said ex-President Roosevelt. 

Mr. Robert Ingersoll said: "I have only time to 
say that Dunbar is a genius." 

James Whitcomb Riley wrote a letter to Prince 
Paul. In his letter he wrote as follows : "Certainly 
your gift is evidenced by this 'Drowsy Day' poem. 
Already you have many friends, and you can have 
thousands more by being simply honest and just to 
yourself and to the high source of your endowment." 

While in the midst of his glory, Prince Paul was 
happily married to a young lady whom he loved 
dearly. For a while he was very happv, for his 
guardian had revealed his gift, which was his talent 
to write poetry, and so cultivated it that Prince Paul 
had become the Black King of Verse whose poetic 
talent was known to be the glory of his people, the 
merry Black Folk, and was cheering and enriching 



14 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 

the world with poetry. King Paul might have lived 
on and on as happily as Croesus ever lived, and he 
might have cheered the world for many a year by 
using his poetical gift, which was more to be desired 
than Aladdin's lamp or little Gluck's golden river, if 
the old giant never had claimed him for his own. 

One day the old giant met King Paul and taunted 
him thus : "Ha, ha, ha ! My fine Prince, while a boy 
and while a very young man you fought me regard- 
less of the hard times and scant earnings I heaped 
upon you. But, by doing so, you lost strength, my 
fine Prince ! And now my faithful servant, Disease, 
shall slay you and your wonderful guardian." 

And before he could find anything or anybody 
to save him from his fate, poor King Paul began 
coughing, and feeling weak and sick. And before 
anybody could cure him, he began dwindling into a 
frail, sick King. 

Twice he fled to the Rocky Mountains to find a 
curative. But he never found that. So on February 
9, 1906, while his mother and a few friends were 
with him at his home in Dayton, King Paul began 
repeating the twenty-third Psalm, and when he had 
said, "When I walk through the valley and shadow," 
he was hushed. For old Disease had slain him. 

Then the dreadful old giant, that was nothing 
more than Poverty in which poor children are 
born, raced on spreading ruin and sorrow without a 
single regret for King Paul and his faithful guard- 
ian, who was nothing more than King Paul's own 
Free Will. 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 15 



HYMN. 

"When storms arise 
And dark'ning skies 

About me threat'ning lower, 
To Thee, O Lord, I raise mine eyes, 
To Thee my tortured spirit flies 

For solace in that hour. 

"Thy mighty arm 

Will let no harm 

Come near me nor befall me ; 

Thy voice shall quiet my alarm 

When life's great battle waxeth warm- 
No foeman shall appall me. 

"Upon Thy breast 
Secure I rest, 

From sorrow and vexation 
No more by sinful cares oppressed, 
But in Thy presence ever blest, 

O God of my salvation." 



A DROWSY DAY. 

"The air is dark, the sky is gray, 
The misty shadows come and go, 

And here within my dusty room 

Each chair looks ghostly in the gloom. 
Outside the rain falls cold and slow — 

Half-stinging drops, half-blinding spray. 

Each slightest sound is magnified, 
For drowsy quiet holds her reign; 

The burnt stick in the fireplace breaks, 

The nodding cat with start awakes, 
And then to sleep drops off again, 

Unheeding Towser at her side. 

I look far out across the lawn, 

Where huddled stand the silly sheep; 



16 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



My work lies idle at my hands, 

My thoughts fly like scattered strands 

Of thread, and on the verge of sleep 
Still half awake I dream and yawn. 

What spirits rise before my eyes ! 

How various of kind and form ! 
Sweet memories of days long past, 
The dream of youth that could not last, 

Each smiling calm, each raging storm, 
That swept across my early skies. 

Before my windows sweep and sway, 
And chaff in tortures of unrest. 
My chin sinks down upon my breast; 

I can not work on such a day, 
But only sit and dream and drowse." 

A BOY'S SUMMER SONG. 

" 'Tis fine to play 

In the fragrant hay, 
And romp on the golden load: 

To ride old Jack 

To the barn and back, 
Or trarnp on a shady road. 

To pause and drink, 

At a mossy brink ; 

And so I say 

On a summer's day 
What's so fine as being a boy? 
Ha, Ha! 

With line and hook 

By a babbling brook, 
The fisherman's sport we ply ; 

And list the song 

Of the feathered throng 
That flit in the branches nigh. 

At last we strip 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 17 



For a quiet dip; 
Ah, that is the best of joy. 

For this I say 

On a summer's day, 
What's so fine as being a boy? 
Ha, Ha !" 



THE SANDMAN. 

"I know a man 

With face of tan 
But who is ever kind; 

Whom girls and boys 

Leave games and toys 
Each eventide to find. 

When day grows dim 

They watch for him 
He comes to place his claim ; 

He wears the crown 

Of dreaming-town ; 
The sand-man is his name. 

When sparkling eyes 
Droop sleepywise 
And busy lips grow dumb; 
When little heads 
Nod towards the beds, 
We know the sand-man's come." 

LITTLE BROWN BABY. 

"Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes, 

Come to yo' pappy an' set on his knee. 
What you been doin', suh, makin' san' pies? 

Look at dat bib — you's ez du'ty ez me. 
Look at dat mouf — dat's merlasses, I bet; 

Come hyeah, Maria, an' wipe off his han's 
Bees gwine to ketch you an' eat you up yit, 

Bein' so sticky an' sweet — goodness lan's! 



18 STORIES OF BLACK FOL K 

Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes, 

Who's pappy's darlin' an' who's pappy's chile? 
Who is it all de day never once tries 

Fo' to be cross, or once loses dat smile? 
Whah did you git dem teef? My, you's a scamp! 

Whah did dat dimple come f'om in you' chin? 
Pappy do' know yo — I b'lives you's a tramp ; 

Mammy, dis hyeah's some ol' straggler got in ! 

Let's th'ow him outen de do' in de san' 

We do' want stragglers a-layin' 'round hyeah ; 
Let's gin him 'way to de big buggah man ; 

I know he's hidin' erroun' hyeah right neah. 
Buggah-man, buggah-man, come in de do' 

Hyeah's a bad boy you kin have fu' to eat 
Mammy an' pappy do' want him no mo' 

Swaller him down f'om his haid to his feet ! 

Dah, now, I fought dat you'd hug me up close. 

Go back, ol' buggah, you sha'n't have dis boy. 
He ain't no tramp, ner no straggler, of co'se; 

He's pappy's pa'dnsr an' playmate an' joy. 
Come to you' pallet now — go to yo' res' 

Wisht you could alius know ease an' cleah skies ; 
Wisht you could stay jes' a chile on my breas' — 

Little brown baby wid spa'klin' eyes !" 

LIFE. 

"A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in, 
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in, 
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble 
And never a laugh but the moans come double; 
And that is life ! 

A crust and a corner that love makes precious, 
With the smile to warm and the tears to refresh us ; 
And joy seems sweeter when cares come after, 

And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter; 
And that is life !" 



PHILLIS WHEATLEY 

Once upon a time over a hundred years ago, when 
the land of flowers, sunshine and music was pos- 
sessed mostly by the Merry Black Folk, there was 
born there among them, so Mother Moon told the 
Stars, the most precious little Princess in the King- 
dom of the Blacks. 

For eight fiery summers she laughed and played 
in the wonderful gardens of her native land as freely 
as the mischievous pygmies whom nobody could 
catch and punish for the pranks they played 
upon the folks thereabouts. So there she was — just 
a swarthy, tiny creature, growing among the palms, 
the fruits, and blossoms, and other graceful things 
that nodded in the breezes. And she was as cheerful 
as a lark; for her heart was full of joy, and her song 
was full of her beautiful thoughts. But of course 
she was that sort of a Princess. For she was sur- 
rounded by the beauty and song of thousands of 
creatures. 

In the jungles about her, many big and little 
waters were tinkling and humming, "On we gurgle 
as we struggle to meet the River King !" 

And the River King responded, "Rush to me, rush 
to me, the old, old Congo, and I'll bear you humming 
waters to the mighty Ocean King— the Atlantic, the 
Atlantic." 

And between the humming waters, birds by thou- 
sands in the tree tops every day were trilling sweet- 
ly, "Warble, warble, warble, warble !" 

Even the lions and tigers, the elephants and 
zebras and the monkeys and gorillas and other 
beasts rioting in the jungles struck up discords at in- 




I'HILLIS WHEATLEY 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 21 



tervals as if they had agreed among themselves to 
enliven the land with their terrifying noises. 

Now, one day, in spite of the Great Sahara, the 
old dragon that lay on its hot bed of sand ready to 
smother the intruders in the land, and Abyssinia's 
highland daughters, whose icy caps pierced the 
clouds as those beautiful giantesses guarded the land 
every day in the year, that precious little Princess 
was carried away from her own black mother and 
from everybody else who loved her, and was en- 
slaved by some strange, stern traders. 

Soon afterwards, as helpless and alone as a cap- 
tured bird with broken wings, she stood beside the 
Ocean King, the great Atlantic, looking for the last 
time upon Africa, her beautiful native land of sun- 
shine, flowers and music. Oh, how miserable the 
little Princess was while leaving Africa, the bride 
of the sun, with its golden crops and fragrant blos- 
soms which the sun had given her ! But the Merry 
Black Folk — not even their Witch Doctor, who used 
roots and herbs to make folks well and happy — did 
not redeem the Princess. So away she was carried, 
over water and land, till she was too sick to cry. 

Finally she was placed in a slave market in Amer- 
ica in Boston, Massachusetts, where she and other 
black slaves stood more helpless and alone than the 
stray dogs in the roads. But, being a wise little 
Princess, she was able to behave respectfully, cheer- 
fully and intelligently. Consequently she found what 
she needed. She found love. 

The lady who loved her was as good as a fairy. 
Of course a fairy God-Mother would have touched 
that miserable little slave and changed her into a 



22 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



happy little Princess. That is what Mrs. John 
Wheatley, the lady who loved her, finally did ; as soon 
as she saw the correct decorum of the little slave, 
she bought her and called her, "My little Phillis 
Wheatley." Little Phillis was carried to Mrs. 
Wheatley's home, where she was given nice things to 
eat, comfortable clothes to wear, and was taught to 
read and write. 

Then, like Paul Laurence, the Black Prince of 
verse, little Phillis began writing wonderful poems. 
And people began saying, "Phillis Wheatley is a 
genius!" 

And little Phillis was indeed a genius. In verse, 
she gave to the world some of the music that she had 
inherited in Africa, her beautiful native land of sun- 
shine, flowers and music. And thousands of people 
in America and in Europe liked her poems. 

One day she wrote a poem about General George 
Washington, the hero of the Revolutionary War. 
After reading her poem, he wrote the following let- 
ter to her: 

"Miss Phillis — Your favor of the 26th of October did not 
reach my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, 
you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. 
But a variety of important occurences, continually inter- 
posing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I 
hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for 
seeming neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your po- 
lite notice of me, in the elegant lines enclosed ; and however 
undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyrie, the 
style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical 
talents; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to 
you, I would have published the poem had I not been appre- 
hensive, that while I only meant to give this new instance 
of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of 



FOR LITTLE FOLK' 23 



vanity. This and nothing else, determined me to not give 
it place in public prints. 

"If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head- 
quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by 
the muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and 
beneficent in her dispensations. 

"I am with great respect, your obedient, humble servant. 

"GEORGE WASHINGTON." 

In the year of 1773, she collected her poems which 
she had published in her book, "Poems on Various 
Subjects, Religious and Moral." 

"We are reading poems by Phillis Wheatley in 
our class," said many school children. For her works 
were studied in the schools -of that day. 

Once she visited England. There she became fa- 
mous as a poetess. In fact, at that time, she was 
known in many parts of the world as. "the African 
Poetess." 

Now, when the Princess returned to America, 
she became very sad. She was unhappy all the rest 
of her life. Upon returning to Mrs. Wheatley, the 
clear lady who had loved her, and had made her hap- 
pier than her own black mother could have done, the 
Princess found the clear lady very sick, and within 
a short while, she saw her pass from life. Being 
bereft of the lady who had made it possible for 
America to know the beautiful thoughts that en- 
riched her mind, and had made her the Princess of 
Poetry, the Princess was sad indeed. 

Soon afterwards Princess Phillis was married to 
a young man of Boston, Massachusetts. But though 
she was married and, after a time was the mother of 
a dear little daughter, she was unhappy, for her baby 



24 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



soon died, and she gradually became weak and sick. 

Finally, on December the fifth, in the year 1784, 
Princess Phillis closed her eyes and went away from 
this world. 

But the world still honors her as the Black 
Poetess from Africa, the land of sunshine, flowers 
and music. 

HIS EXCELLENCY, GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

Celestial choir ! enthroned in realms of light, 
Columbia's scenes of glorious toils I write; 
While freedom's cause her anxious breast alarms, 
She flashed dreadful in refulgent arms, 
See, Mother Earth her offspring's fate bemoan, 
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown: 
See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light 
Involved in sorrow and in veil of night 
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair, 
Olive and laurel bind her golden hair; 
Where ever shines the native of the skies, 
Unnumbered charms and recent graces rise. 
Muse ! bow propitious while my pen relates 
How pour her arms through a thousand gates ; 
As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms, 
Enwrapped in temptest and a night of storms ; 
Astonished ocean feels the wild uproar, 
The refluent surges beat the resounding shore; 
Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign, 
Such and so many moves the warrior's train, 
In bright array to seek the world of war, 
Where high unfurled the ensign waves in air. 
Shall I to Washington their praises recite ? 
Enough, thou knowest them in the fields of fight. 
Thee, first in peace and honor we demand, 
Famed for their valor, for thy virtue more, 
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore. 
One century scarce performed its destined round 
When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found; 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 25 



And, may you, whoever dares disgrace 
The land of freedom's heaven-defended race. 
Fixed are the eyes of nations on the scales, 
For in their hope Columbia's arm prevails, 
Amen, Britannia droops the pensive head, 
While round increase the rising hills of dead. 
Ah. cruel blindness in Columbia's state, 
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late. 
Proceed, great chief; virtue on thy side; 
Thy every action let the goddess guide. 
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine 
With gold unfading, Washington, be thine. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON ELLIS 

Now, in the year 1917, the Merry Black Folk 
grieved because of the death of George Washington 
Ellis, one of their sons, who had traveled and so- 
journed in their beautiful and rich Mother-land of 
sunshine, flowers and music, where he saw and heard 
much that he afterwards wrote in books for the 
world to read. 

Fortunately, when George Washington Ellis was 
a little boy he liked to go to school. He learned rap- 
idly in the public schools of Atchison, Kansas, his 
home town, and at the University of Kansas, Gun- 
ton's Institute of Economics and Sociology in New 
York City and at Howard University, in Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

"Now what will he do?" asked the Merry Black 
Folk as he left Howard University. 

But he did not serve them at that time by travel- 
ing in their Mother-land to learn about their people 
living there. Instead he became a lawyer at Law- 
rence, Kansas. Later he was a clerk in the Depart- 
ment of Interior at Washington, D. C. 

Then the time came for him to perform the sacred 
and noble duty of studying the lives of his people in 
Africa. He was appointed Secretary of the Amer- 
ican I egation to Liberia, Africa, by President Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. 

He was glad to work in Liberia. There he trav- 
eled anions the happy Blacks, many of whom were 
living as their ancestors were living when Princess 
Phillis was playing somewhere in the gardens there. 

After several years, he returned to America 
where he wrote several books in which he described 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 27 



life among the Merry Black Folk in Africa. Among 
his books appear the following works, "Negro Cul- 
ture in West Africa," "The Leopard's Claw," "Negro 
Achievements in Social Progress," "Liberia in the 
Political Psychology of West Africa," "Islam as a 
Factor in West African Culture" and "Dynamic 
Factors in the Liberian Situation." 

In his works, he wrote many interesting and in- 
structive descriptions about his people. He called 
them beautiful people and told about their sorrows 
as if he would have given his life to have removed 
their darkness, and thereby, he attempted to endear 
them to the readers of his books. He told the legends 
and proverbs to many people, who learned that the 
Merry Black Folk in Africa are like other primitive 
people in many respects. Thus he answered his 
noble call — to reveal the truth about the Blacks in 
Africa. 

THE MAN AND THE GOAT. 

A man went into the forest and set a rope trap, and the 
trap caught a bush goat. The man was so eager to kill the 
goat that in his zeal he made a mistake, and with his knife 
he struck the rope, and cut it instead of the goat, and the 
goat ran away. The man followed the goat for many hours ; 
by and by the man became tired ; the man called to the goat 
to wait, and when the goat stopped the man said to it : 
"Twins can not eat goat meat. My wife is a twin, my chil- 
dren are twins, and I am a twin. I do not wish to eat you. 
I was only joking." The goat said in reply, "If you, your 
wife and your children are all twins and you do not wish to 
eat me, why have you followed me all these hours?" 



28 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



One man liked to fight, and he whipped everybody he 
met. He took three cows and went about his country, offer- 
ing these three cows to anybody who could whip him. 

THE TWO FIGHTERS. 

One lazy man heard about this man's fighting, and came 
to him and told him that he could whip him. "Before we 
fight," said the lazy man, "we must bet. I will bring my 
three cows and the one who whips will take the six." The 
champion fighter said, "All right ; we will fight tomorrow." 
The lazy man before he started to the fight told his boy that 
if the fighter struck him four good licks, he intended to 
run. "All right," said the boy, "let us go." The two men 
met to fight. And they began to fight. The champion 
fighter struck the lazy man four strong blows when the 
lazy man cried out to the boy, "The time has come." The 
boy said, "Wait until he strikes you one more time." Then 
the great fighter said to himself, "This man wants to wait 
until I strike him again before he does what he intends to 
do; he surely means to kill me." And he at once stopped 
fighting and ran. And the lazy man won the six cows and 
the fight. 

VAI PROVERBS. 

"The person who says catch a cat by the neck has been 
bitten before." When a person is about to stand somebody's 
bond and some one warns him not to do so and he wants to 
know why not, the answer is, "The person who says," etc. 

The Vais like to dress and some of the worst characters 
of the community appear in the finest and most costly dress. 
On ceremonial occasions some of these bad people appear so 
well that they excite the comment, "The house looks pretty 
from the outside, but the inside is bad." 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 29 



. "The rice bird finds a place to sit down first before he 
begins to eat rice." That is to say before a person under- 
takes to do anything he should first get power or make 
preparations. 

"Old cloth has a new pocket." That is, a poor man sud- 
denly gets a little money or is raised in position. 

"The elephant never gets tired of carrying his tusks." 
That is, no matter how poor people become they try to sup- 
port their people. And if they complain the above words 
are echoed in their ears. If they complain when they are 
doing any other thing they ought to do they hear this 
proverb. 

"A little rain every day will make the river swell." Peo- 
ple are encouraged to save money by repeating to them this 
old saying. 




SAMFEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR 
CRISTUS ATTUCKS PAGE 70 



SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR 

"I would like to hear that little boy play his vio- 
lin," said a noted musician as he saw little Prince 
Samuel playing marbles with one hand and holding 
a tiny violin in the other. 

So, after leading the Prince into his studio, the 
musician handed a piece of music to him and said, 
"Play this." 

As little Prince Samuel finished playing that 
piece and several others, he heard the musician 
shouting, "Bravo ! Bravo !" And soon afterwards he 
began teaching the little Prince to play his precious 
little instrument. 

Now, Prince Samuel's father was a fickle, black 
surgeon, who had hailed from Sierra Leone, and, 
who, shortly after the birth of the Prince in London, 
England, on the fifteenth of August, in the year 
1875, had deserted his family, and had returned to 
Africa without having left as much as a crust of 
bread for his little son. 

But the little Prince was loved greatly by his 
mother, an English lady, who toiled faithfully to 
support and educate him. And so when he was given 
the tiny violin by a poor workman, he was allowed to 
take lessons upon it. Prince Samuel soon learned to 
play simple pieces, and after being instructed for a 
while by the noted musician, he began attracting the 
public's attention to his performances. And within 
a short time, he was being called a genius. 

Prince Samuel also learned vocal music. So one 
day he came to his mother saying, "Listen, mother!" 
Then he played and sang a song that he had com- 
posed. 

He began playing in public programs while he 



32 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



was young enough for his teacher to say afterwards, 
"He was so small that I had to stand him on some 
boxes that he might be seen above the ferns by the 
audience." 

By and By, he began singing in the St. George's 
and St. Mary's choirs. Through the efforts of Mr. 
Herbert A. Walters, the choir-master of the St. 
George Church, he was sent to the Royal Academy 
of Music where, in the year 1893, he was given a 
scholarship in composition, and whence he was grad- 
uated during the next year. During the next two 
years, he won the Lesley Alexander prize for com- 
position. 

When Prince Samuel was seventeen years old, he 
composed his "In Thee, Lord." In time, he com- 
posed many songs, a number of compositions for 
string, wind and horn instruments, and many sym- 
phonic, orchestral and choral works. He got his 
best inspirations from the folk-lore of the Black 
Folk. While thus inspired he composed his "African 
Dances," "African Romances," and his "Songs of 
Slavery." 

Like many a fine prince in fairy tales, Prince 
Samuel was happily married to a sweet tempered 
lady, who sang sweetly. And they had two children, 
each of whom had the gift of music. 

But like Prince Paul, Prince Samuel was seized 
by old Disease. So one morning, he told his wife 
that he had dreamed of shaking hands with some- 
body in heaven. "You know what that means," said 
the Prince. "I am going to die." 

Sure enough. Prince Samuel, who really had be- 
come the great Black King of Music, became weak 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 33 



and sick. And on the Sabbath of September 1, 1912, 
as he lay propped on pillows conducting an imagin- 
ary choir, King Samuel suddenly closed his eyes and 
passed quietly from this beautiful, green earth 
which he had enriched with his wonderful music. 




ALEXANDRE DUMAS 



ALEXANDRE DUMAS 

"I will not go to the Seminary !" once cried little 
Alexandre Dumas, the tiny French genius of long 
ago, as he looked straight at his mother, although 
he knew that she wanted him to go to a boarding 
school where he could study theology. 

Then he stamped as noisily as he could; frowned 
darkly upon the trunks of clothes that he had been 
expected to carry to the school ; and talked as inde- 
pendently about his not going to ths Seminary as if 
he had been a hundred years old. 

However, after seeing that his behavior was 
grieving his mother, he became a bit nenitent, and 
stole from her presence to crv about his display of 
anger, and to write a letter of aoologies to her. 

Now, little Alexandre wept bitterlv, and wrote 
rapidlv; for he had a new notion that he wanted to 
try. So he shortly cried, "There, when mother reads 
this letter from me, she will know that I love her 
dearly, even though I will not go to the Seminary." 

And then he ran away. He ran and ran and ran 
and ran! On he ran until he came to a hut in the 
woods. 

"May I stav with you?" Alexandre asked the man 
who lived in the hut. 

"Yes," answered the man. 

Three davs later little Alexandre said to the man, 
"I am going to my mother." 

"Goodbye," answered the man. 

Now little Alexandre was ^Jad to return to his 
mother. For he dearlv loved her. Tn fsct, while 
returning to her, he believed thpt he b°H lov<^i his 
mother ever since he h^d come into the world on 



36 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



the twenty-fourth of July in the year 1802 at Villers- 
Cotterets, France, and that he had sympathized with 
her because she had been struggling to support her 
family ever since the death of his father, General 
Thomas Alexandre Dumas, whom the Austrians had 
called "the black devil," because of his prowess at 
battle. 

And his mother was glad of his return as the 
father in the Biblical story was of the return of his 
prodigal son. 

"But Alexandre," said his mother to him, "y° u 
must study Latin, arithmetic and writing under the 
directions of a private teacher." 

Now Prince Alexandre had never liked to studv. 
And at one time in the past, he had neglected study- 
ing music to the extent that his teacher had discon- 
tinued instructing him, and had said to his mother: 
"Alexandre has no sense of music whatever !" 

But to keep from remaining an ignorant, worth- 
less little Prince, he determined to learn something. 
Hence he mastered writing. 

When he was sixteen years old, he was able to 
write well, hence he was employed as a secertary for 
the Duke of Orleans. 

Of course there was a reason why Prince Alexan- 
dre did not want to study theology, and there was a 
reason why he mastered writing. And within a few 
years he was successful in showing his mother and 
the whole world why he wrote instead of preaching, 
for he soon said to one of his friends, "I like to 
write stories. I want to become a novelist." 

"Then you should study German and Italian," 
answered his friend. 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 37 



At last Alexandre had found a purpose for which 
he was willing to study. He diligently studied Ital- 
ian and German so that he could write novels and 

plays. 

Now, unfortunately, Alexandre was a faithful 
subject of old King Frivolity. Often he was serving 
that old King at places of merriment when he should 
have been serving the Duke, or studying and writing 
books. 

So finally the Duke said: "Alexandre, you are 
unfaithful, and cannot serve me any longer." 

After being dismissed by the Duke, he studied 
all the more to become a writer. And once, when he 
was seventeen years old, he sat in a popular theater 
seeing the performance of his first drama, "Henry 
III." He realized how necessary it was for "Henry 
III" to please the vast audience that crowded the 
theater. For if it did not succeed, he and his mother 
would continue in poverty. But if it succeeded — oh, 
how his heart thumped as he thought of the money 
he would earn because of it, and of the nice things 
he would buy for his mother, who at that very time 
was critically sick. 

Now "Henry III" was a success. From its begin- 
ning to its end, the audience applauded it again and 
again. Between its acts, happy Prince Alexandre 
rushed to his mother to say, " 'Henry IIP has made 
our fortune !" 

And it had. Thereafter Alexandre was able to 
spend his time writing books. He wrote two hun- 
dred and seventy-seven books. And he was honored 
as a great novelist all over the world. In the year 
1838, he was saddened by the death of his mother. 



38 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



One day, when he was sixty-eight years old, he 
put aside his pen and fell asleep. He never awoke. 
Many years afterwards, a splendid statue was 
erected in honor of him at Paris, France. For he had 
been a great French King of Novels. 

HOW THE DUC DE BEAUFORT AMUSED HIS LEISURE 
HOURS IN THE DONJON OF VINCENNES. 

His next act was to purchase a dog from one of his keep- 
ers. With this animal, which he called Pistache, he was 
often shut up for hours alone, superintending, as every one 
supposed, its education. At last, when Pistache was suffi- 
ciently well trained, Monsieur de Beaufort invited the gov- 
ernors and officers of Vincennes to attend a representation 
which he was going to have in his apartment. 

The party assembled: the room was lighted with wax 
lights, and the prisoner, with a bit of plaster he had taken 
out of the wall in his room, had traced a long white line on 
the floor. Pistache on a signal from his master, placed him- 
self on this line, raised himself on his hind paws, and holding 
in his front paws a wand with which clothes used to be 
beaten, he began to dance upon the line with as many con- 
tortions as a rope-dancer. Having been several times up and 
down it, he gave the wand back to his master, and began, 
without hesitation, to perform the same revolutions over 
again. 

The intelligent creature was received with loud applause. 

The first part of the entertainment being concluded Pis- 
tache was desired to say what o'clock it was ; he was shown 
Monsieur de Chavigny's watch; it was then half-past six. 
The dog raised and dropped his paw six times ; the seventh 
he let it remain upraised. Nothing could be better done ; 
a sun-dial could not have shown the hour with greater pre- 
cision. 

Then the question was put to him who was the best 
jailer in all the prisons of France? 

The dog performed three evolutions round the circle, 
and laid himself with the deepest respect at the feet of 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 39 



Monsieur de Chavigny, who at first seemed inclined to like 
the joke, and laughed aloud; but a frown soon succeeded, 
and he bit his lips with vexation. 

Then he put to Pistache this difficult question ; who was 
the greatest thief in the world? 

Pistache went again the round of the circle, but stopped 
at no one ; and at last, went to the door, and began to scratch 
and bark. 

"See, gentlemen," said M. de Beaufort, "this wonderful 
animal, not finding here what I asked for, seeks it out of 
doors; you shall, however, have his answer. Pistache, my 
friend, coma here. Is not the greatest thief in the world, 
Monsieur (the king's secretary) La Camus, who came to 
Paris with twenty francs in his pocket, and who now pos- 
sesses six millions?" 

The dog shook his head. 

"Then is it not," resumed the duke, "the Superintendent 
Emery, who gave his son, when he married, three hundred 
thousand francs and a house, compared to which the Tuil- 
leries are a heap of ruins and the Louvre a paltry building?" 

The dog again shook his head as if to say "No." 

"Then," said the prisoner, "let's think who it can be ; can 
it possibly be the illustrious coxcomb, Mazarin de Piscina, 
hey?" 

"Gentlemen, you see," said the duke to those present, 
who dared not even smile, "that it is the illustrious cox- 
comb, who is the greatest thief in the world ; at least ac- 
cording to Pistache." 

"Let us go to another of his exercises." 

"Gentlemen !" — there was a profound silence in the room 
when the duke again addresses them — "do you not remember 
that the Due de Quis taught all the dogs in Paris to jump 
for Mademoiselle de Pons, whom he styled, 'the fairest of 
the fair?' Pistache is going to show you how superior he 
is to all other dogs. Monsieur de Chavigny, be so good as to 
lend me your cane. Now, Pistache, my dear, jump the height 
of this cane for Madame Montbazon." 

The dog found no difficulty in it, and jumped joyfully for 
Madame de Montbazon. 

"But," interposed M. de Chavigny, "it seems to me that 



40 STORIE S OF BLACK FOLK 

Pistache is only doing what other dogs have done when they 
have jumped for Mademoiselle Pons." 

"Stop," said the duke, "Pistache, jump for the queen." 
And he raised his cane six inches higher. 

The dog sprang, and in spite of the height, jumped light- 
ly over it. 

"And now," said the duke, raising it still six inches 
higher, "jump for the king." 

The dog obeyed and jumped quickly over the cane. 

"Now, then," said the duke, as he spoke, lowered the 
cane almost level with the ground; "Pistache, my friend, 
jump for the illustrious coxcomb, Mazarin de Piscina." 

The dog turned his back on the cane. 

"What," asked the duke, "what do you mean?" and he 
gave him the cane again, first making a semicircle from his 
head to the tail of Pistache. "Jump, then, Monsieur Pis- 
tache." 

But Pistache, as at first, turned round on his legs, and 
stood with his back to the cane. 

Monsieur de Beaufort made the experiment the third 
time; but this time Pistache rushed furiously on the cane 
and broke it with his teeth. 

Monsieur de Beaufort took the pieces out of his mouth, 
and presented them with great formality to Monsieur de 
Chavigny, saying that for the evening, the entertainment 
was ended, but in three months it should be repeated, when 
Pistache would have learned some new tricks. 

(Selected from "Twenty Years After.") 



ALEXANDER PUSHKIN 

While Alexandre, the little French genius, was 
living a little above want, and was refusing to at- 
tend the Seminary, Alexander Pushkin, a little Rus- 
sian genius, was living like a lord in the Lyceum in 
his native land. Those two, little Alexandre, of 
France, and little Alexander, of Russia, were similar 
characters; they were unfaithful students; were loy- 
al subjects of King Frivolity; and were fond of read- 
ing and writing. 

Like Prince Paul Laurence, little Alexander 
Pushkin wrote poetry during childhood. While in 
the Lyceum, he wrote poems in the French and Rus- 
sian languages. He had them published when he 
was fifteen years old. Then he was recognized as 
a genius. 

Once he recited one of his poems during a public 
program at the Lyceum, and thereby won a public 
blessing from Derghavin, a noted literary critic. 

After leaving the Lyceum he continued studying 
and writing poetry. He soon joined a literary club, 
the object of which was to encourage or inspire 
somebody to write pure Russian poetry. For nobody 
had become the national poet of that country. Each 
member of the club tried to become or help some- 
body else to become the national poet. So Alexander 
soon began writing a Russian poem. One day he 
finished it and read it at the club. 

"Bravo! Alexander, you have written real Rus- 
sian verse!" cried the members of the club, as he 
finished reading his poem. 

Of course Prince Alexander wrote Russian verse, 
for he loved and understood his countrv. In fact, he 
loved Russia so well that in the year 1817 he entered 



42 STOR IES OF B LACK FOLK 

the service of the government in the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs. 

While serving the government he met some 
young men, who were Liberals. He liked those young- 
men, and finally became a Liberal. Then he began 
writing articles that defended the cause of the Lib- 
erals. His articles displeased the government offi- 
cials. Hence they ordered Prince Alexander's ban- 
ishment. 

"Alexander Pushkin is our poet, and he shall not 
spend the rest of his life as an exile," said his influ- 
ential political friends, and they kept him from being 
banished for a while. 

However, as time passed, Alexander showed that 
he was as loyal to the Liberals as his great-grand 
father, the brave old African Prince Ibraham Han- 
nibal, had been to Peter the Great by whom Hanni- 
bal was owned as a slave, but by whom he was also 
educated and made a General in the Russian army. 
So Prince Alexander wrote other Liberal articles.* 

"Alexander Pushkin shall leave Moscow!" the 
government officials finally declared, and they ban- 
ished him during the year 1820. 

For four years he was an exile in southern Rus- 
sia, where he learned more to write about than he 
had known since June 7, 1799, the day on which he 
was born, at Moscow. He studied life in the Cau- 
casus, learned the old legends of Crimea, and ob- 
served the habits of the Gypsies, with whom he 
traveled for several months. 

After returning to Moscow, he studied the his- 
tory of the people living in the northern part of the 
country. Then he began writing works that de- 



F OR LITTLE F OLK 43 

scribed the lives of these people, and that made him 
famous as the Father of Russian Poetry. His works 
were full of realism and nationalism. He wrote a 
sufficient number of them to fill an edition of seven 
volumes. He was the favorite poet of Nicholas I, and 
was the most popular writer in Russia. In time he 
became the imperial historiographer, and as such 
wrote the life of Peter the Great. 

Now on the tenth of February in the year 1837, 
when Pushkin had become the King of Russian 
Verse, he fought a duel with Baron Dantes. In the 
times of Prince Alexander, duels were considered as 
honorable and necessary contests. The poor Prince 
was wounded in the duel — and in two days he was 
dead. 

All Russia mourned for King Alexander. The 
Czar, Nicholas I, showed his respect for him by or- 
dering an edition of his works. Thus passed from 
life Alexander Pushkin, the father and King of Rus- 
sian poetry, who had written of death as follows: 

"Happy the man who early quits 
The feast of life, not caring to drain 
The sparkling goblet, filled with wine. 
Happy the man who dares not wait 
To read the final page of life's romance 
But suddenly bids the world adieu." 




TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE 



TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE 

Once upon a time, nearly two hundred years ago, 
when the poor Blacks in Haiti were needing a Moses 
to deliver them from bondage, Francois Dominique 
Toussaint, a little, black slave was born there among 
them. 

Soon little Toussaint was growing as rapidly as if 
he were hurrying into manhood to perform some 
great and noble act. So within a few years he was 
doing chores, and noticing everything and everybody 
on his owner's plantation, which was known as the 
Breda Estate, and where he was kept for many years 
either as a worker in the fields of tobacco or as a 
postilion ; the latter being an honored person in the 
opinions of the miserable field-hands whom Tous- 
saint was moved to pity every day in the year. As 
he saw them overworked, beaten, starved and mur- 
dered, he pitied them as he pitied himself. In fact 
he would have given his life for the emancipation of 
the slaves in Haiti. 

But, for many years, he could do nothing more to 
help them than to live a chaste and inspiring life, and 
to remain a faithful, industrious slave. Consequent- 
ly he was the favorite thereabouts. Naturally he 
was trusted and raised to a postilion by his owner by 
whom he was taught reading, writing and arithme- 
tic. As for his brethren, the black slaves, they loved 
and revered him as a gracious father at whose com- 
mand they would have entered the jaws of death. 

When Toussaint became a tall, strong man he was 
married to a black lady named Suzanna Simon Bap- 
tiste. And they had two sons whom they called Isaac 
and Saint Jean. Toussaint also had a step-son named 
Placide. 



46 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



Now when Toussaint was about forty-five years 
old, he and many other black slaves were grieved by 
the martyrdom of two Haitians; one of whom was 
Jacques Ogre, a mulatto of Dondon, and the other was 
Jean Baptist Chavanne, a brave old soldier of Riv- 
iers. The slaves were concerned more about the 
events which were the causes of their martyrdom 
than they were about the tragic ends of them. Oge, 
a man of wealth, considerable influence and intelli- 
gence, had attempted to help his people, the free 
mulattoes of Haiti, have the enormous taxes they 
were being assessed reduced, and to help them win 
the rights to vote in public elections, to hold civil 
positions, to practice professions, and to gain other 
rights which were essentials for their advancement. 
Upon hearing of the murder of some mulattoes who 
had attempted to vote at a public poll in Haiti, Oge 
hurried from France where he had gone to plead 
the cause of his people to the "Friends of the Blacks," 
a body that favored the Black Folk. After landing 
in Haiti, Oge and Chavanne led about two hundred 
and fifty mulattoes against their oppressors, the 
white citizens of the island. During the attack, near- 
ly all the mulattoes were captured and imprisoned 
for life or were hanged. But Oge and Chavanne 
were broken alive upon the "wheel." After their 
deaths, their heads were cut off and placed upon 
poles that stood upon roads that lead to their native 
towns. 

The more Toussaint and his enslaved brethren 
thought about the martyred men, the more often 
they said to themselves, "If they so treated free men, 
they can not become our liberators !" 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 47 



Hence the black slaves determined to follow the 
advice of these words: 

"Who would be free. 
Themselves must strike the blow." 

So on the dark stormy night of August 14, 1791, 
Toussaint presided over them in a secret meeting in 
which they planned to revolt against their owners, 
the mulattoes and white people of Haiti. 

They told nobody about their meeting. But at 
midnight in August 22, 1791, they stormed Saint 
Domingo. With Jean Francois, a stern, brave slave 
as their leader, they ran about spreading death and 
destruction and crying: 

"Liberty! Liberty!! Liberty!!!" 

After seeing the escape of his owner, Toussaint 
fought with the revolting slaves. He maneuvered 
as if nature had fashioned him for a general. In time 
he became their leader. 

Now, while Toussaint was directing their insur- 
rection, there were other turmoils on the island. For 
the mulattoes under the leadership of their powerful 
chief, Andre Riguad, began fighting for civil rights. 
Then, one day, English and Spanish troops landed at 
Haiti, that beautiful little island, which, with its val- 
leys and mountains, its fruits and forests, and its 
population of French and Spanish people and Indians 
and Negroes, was a possession of France. 

"Ah, the Spanish and English want to possess the 
land !" said the black slaves. 

And they spoke the truth. Soon they were asked 
to support the cause of the Spanish and English. 

"Give us liberty and we will fight!" answered the 
slaves. 



48 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 

, — — _ , _ 

Throughout the war, Toussaint and his forces 
fought for their liberty. At one time they aided the 
Spanish, at another, the English. Finally Toussaint 
and his troops understood the French to say: 

"Fight for France, and you shall have liberty." 

So they espoused the French cause. 

Soon afterwards, Toussaint became the general- 
in-chief of the Haitian army. He led his troops from 
one victory to another. Where others failed, his 
army triumphed. For their general-in-chief was a 
genius at battling. 

Upon noticing the generalship of Toussaint, a 
French soldier cried, "Why, this man makes an open- 
ing everywhere !" 

Immediately his troops began cheering him thus, 
"L'Ouverture ! L'Ouverture ! !" for the French word 
for "opening" is "l'ouverture." Thereafter their 
brave general was known as Toussaint L'Ouverture. 

L'Ouverture worked on and off the battle-field. 
He drilled his ignorant, half-starved brethren, who 
fought in rags, until his troops were fit to serve a 
king. To every man joining his army, he usually 
presented a gun while saying: 

"This gun is liberty ; hold for certain that the day 
when you no more have it, you will be returned to 
slavery." And he often inspired the blacks by say- 
ing to them, "Your gun is your liberty." 

To reinforce his army, he issued the following 

proclamation: 

"In Camp Turel, August 29, 1793. 

"Brothers and Friends: 

"I am Toussaint L'Ouverture; my name is perhaps known 
to you. I have undertaken to avenge your wrongs. It is my 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 49 



desire that liberty and equality shall reign in Saint Domingo. 
I am striving to this end. Come and unite with us, brothers, 
and combat with us for the same cause. 

"Your very humble and very obedient servant, 
"Signed: Toussaint L'Ouverture, 

"General for the public welfare." 

His black brothers answered his call. And he led 
them to victory. 

Hence, on the twenty-second of July in the year 
1795, a treaty, known as the Treaty of Basel, was 
made between Spain and France. By it all Spanish 
possessions in Saint Domingo were ceded to France. 
Finally on the twenty-third of October in the year 
1798, the English army surrendered. 

Then the black Haitians said, "Now we are free- 
men!" 

Immediately Toussaint L'Ouverture began gov- 
erning the land. On November 26, 1798, he wrote a 
letter to President Adams of the United States ask- 
ing for the reopening of trade between Haiti and the 
States. 

Now, even though Toussaint L'Ouverture had led 
the Blacks to freedom, he had opposers. Brave Gen- 
eral Riguad, who had led the mulattoes to victory, 
had the support of his forces. In fact, thousands of 
Haitians wanted Riguad to govern the land. 

So, for several months, civil war was waged be- 
tween the armies of L'Ouverture and those of 
Riguad. 

Riguad and his army fought bravely, but finally 
they were crushed by L'Ouverture's forces, which 
were led by General Jean Jacques Bessalines, a 
dauntless fighter, and General Henri Christophe, a 



50 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



staunch supporter of the general-in-chief. During 
the month of August in the year 1800, L'Ouverture 
and Riguad settled on terms of peace. 

L'Ouverture then sent to prison a high official 
named Roume, who had supported Riguad. 

Then Toussaint L'Ouverture became the "sole 
ruler" of his country. As such he strove for the 
growth of Haiti. At all times he demanded decency 
and correct living from the citizens. Though he 
never enforced his laws by cruelty, he ever used stern 
measures upon breakers of the laws. 

Like Captain John Smith, the Jamestown colo- 
nist, L'Ouverture would not tolerate laziness. He 
compelled the freemen to cultivate the plantations, 
but he was generous. To the former slave-holders 
who had fled from Haiti during the insurrection of 
the black slaves, he said: "Return to Haiti, your 
native land, and enjoy its wealth. For the wealth of 
the land is yours as well as ours." 

The Haitians grew to love Toussaint L'Ouverture 
because of his benevolence and sincerity. They of- 
fered to make him king, but he refused the crown. 

Now Toussaint L'Ouverture could not forget the 
misery that he and his brethren had suffered as 
slaves. Whenever he thought of the possible return 
of slavery — and he often thought of it — he became 
sad, and tried to think of a law which, if adopted, 
would bring about "The absolute adoption of the 
principle that no man born red, black or white can 
be the property of another man." 

Soon he thought of the law he wanted, and he 
said, "Haiti must have a constitution." 

Then he chose nine of the most intelligent men 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 51 



on the island to write it, but he directed the making 
of their constitution. He tried to have one made 
which would be as beneficial as the constitutions of 
America and France had proven to have been. 

Finally the nine wise men finished writing the 
constitution. And in July in the year 1801, it was 
adopted by the governmental officials during state- 
ly ceremonies, that were held in Place d'Armes at 
the Cape. Toussaint L'Ouverture was pleased with 
the constitution because it declared that slavery was 
abolished forever from the land and that all men 
born and living in Saint Domingo were freemen and 
Frenchmen. A copy of it was sent immediately to 
Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul of France. 

According to the constitution, L'Ouverture was to 
be the governor as long as he lived, and he was to 
name the governor who would succeed him. Hence, 
as soon as the constitution was adopted, L'Ouverture 
made plans for a long and successful reign. Because 
of his wise rule and thorough plans, the island be- 
came prosperous. The plantations yielded great har- 
vests of tobacco ; fruits and flowers were plenteous ; 
and the ex-slaves became some of the merriest Black 
Folk in the world. 

Those were the happiest days of Toussaint 
L'Ouverture's life. For his dreams had come true. 
He and his brethren were freemen. Largely through 
his efforts, the entire island had been won for 
France, and the weary Haitians had won peace. The 
world was recognizing L'Ouverture as a warrior and 
as a ruler of exceptional ability. 

L'Ouverture wanted his sons to become intelli- 
gent and useful. So he sent them to Paris, France, 



52 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



to be educated. Just how anxious he was to have 
them improve is shown by the following letter that 
he wrote to them. 

Toussaint L'Ouverture, general-in-chief of the army of Saint 
Domingo, to Isaac and Placide, his sons at the National 
Institute, Paris. 

Cape Francois, April 14, 1799. 

"The Citizen Bonnet has brought to me, my dear chil- 
dren, the letter which you wrote me last 5th Pluvoise. The 
respect with which you honor your papa and your mamma 
has given pleasure to us both. I will embrace for you your 
brother Saint Jean and your cousin Pauline when I see them. 
I have put the little Saint Jean at Port-de-Paix with Citizen 
Granville, an instructor of youth. You will soon see the 
son of this respectable citizen at the National Institute. 
It will be proper to cultivate his friendship ; he is your com- 
patriot ; his father is my friend ; these are very mild claims 
for this young man. 

"My dear children, many respectable persons are inter- 
ested in you. You must redouble your zeal and application, 
so as not to deceive my hopes. But without religion, with- 
out the assistance of God, your efforts will be useless; it 
is strictly necessary that you pray night and morning in 
order to inspire you with virtuous sentiments. Avoid and 
detest everything that may have the imprint of vice; 
respect your teachers, and all of your superiors ; be solicit- 
ous, civil and honorable toward your associates then you 
will be well thought of by all; and thus make the consola- 
tion of your good papa and your good mamma who cherish 
you so tenderly. Your mamma and myself embrace you, 
my dear children, thousands and thousands of times. 
"I am your good papa, 

"Toussaint L'Ouverture." 

Now, while Isaac and Placide were reading their 
father's letter, there was a powerful ruler elsewhere 
in Paris, who was planning to overthrow their noble 
parent. 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 53 



For the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, was 
displeased with the government of Haiti. Some his- 
torians record that Bonaparte presumed that 
L'Ouverture, if left to govern the land, finally would 
attempt to make Haiti an independent country. But 
whatever his thoughts were about L'Ouverture, on 
October 1, 1801, Bonaparte ordered his brother-in- 
law, General Le Clerc, to take a powerful fleet to 
Saint Domingo. In that fleet, which left France dur- 
ing December in the year 1801, were General Andre 
Riguad and L'Ouverture's sons, Placide and Isaac. 

Soon afterwards, General Henri Christophe, 
L'Ouverture's faithful friend, who had charge of the 
post in Cape Francois, saw the approach of the fleet. 
Immediately he sent a messenger with news of it to 
L'Ouverture, who then was away from the cape. 
Christophe then sent an officer to ask that General 
Le Clerc might delay the landing of the fleet until 
he had heard from General L'Ouverture. 

But General Le Clerc twice refused to grant his 
request. Hence Christopher said to the messenger: 
"They take us for sieves then. Go, say to General 
Le Clerc that the French will find here only a heap of 
ashes, and that the very ground will burn them !" 

As the fleet continued advancing, General Chris- 
tophe began destroying the town by first firing his 
own home. After the Cape and the surrounding- 
plantations had been destroyed, he and his forces es- 
caped to the neighboring mountains. 

Then General Le Clerc and his forces landed and 
took possession of the town. 

When General L'Ouverture saw the French 



54 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



troops, he said to his brethren, "All France has come 
to Haiti. They can only come to make us slaves." 

But the French General said to them, "We do not 
come to make you slaves; this man Toussaint tells 
you lies; join us and you will have the rights you 
claim." 

Now, many of the ex-slaves believed the words of 
the French General, and therefore they deserted 
L'Ouverture to join Le Clerc's army. But General 
L'Ouverture never believed that the French troops 
were sent to Haiti during the time of peace for any 
other purpose than to enslave his people. And he 
again determined to fight for their liberty. 

One day L'Ouverture was visited by his sons, 
Isaac and Placide. He was glad to see his boys, 
though he was pained to see them wearing the uni- 
forms of the French troops, and was grieved to find 
them in the army of his enemies. But he embraced 
them again and again, and cried, "My children, take 
your choice and whatever it shall be, I shall always 
cherish you — even though you enter the ranks of my 
enemies!" 

"Very well, my father," said Isaac, "Behold in me 
a faithful servant of France who can never resign 
himself to bear arms against her." 

But Placide cried, "I am for you, my father; I 
fear the future ; I fear slavery ; I am ready to com- 
bat against it." 

Then Placide was given command of one of 
L'Ouverture's battalions. But Isaac went away with 
his mother, and remained neutral during the strug- 
gles of his father. 

Now, General Le Clerc had hoped that Toussaint 



FOR LITTLE FOLK t. 55 



L'Ouverture would have given up the fight for free- 
dom for the sake of his sons. But upon seeing the 
result of his sons' visit, the French General planned 
to defeat L'Ouverture and his army. So he issued a 
proclamation in which he made clear the purpose of 
his expedition. In his proclamation he made attrac- 
tive promises and stern threats to the Haitians. To 
those supporting the French cause, he promised 
peace and happiness; to the deserters of L'Ouver- 
ture's army, he promised enrollment in the French 
army, and he promised liberty to all Haitians. He 
declared that he had ordered General L'Ouverture 
to wait upon him for the purpose of offering him 
the place of lieutenant-colonel in his army. As Gen- 
eral L'Ouverture did not wait upon him, General Le 
Clerc issued a proclamation which began thus: 

"I order as follows: 

" 'That Generals Toussaint and Christophe be 
outlawed, and every citizen is hereby ordered to at- 
tack and treat them as rebels to the French Re- 
public' " 

But Toussaint L'Ouverture was undaunted. 
Again he made dreaded soldiers of poor, ignorant 
black men. And he again led them in a fight for 
their liberty. 

Once General Dessalines, a brave officer in 
L'Ouverture's army, held a torch over a caisson of 
powder while he shouted to a garrison of blacks : 

"I only want brave men with me. We are going 
to be attacked this morning. Let those who wish to 
be slaves to the French leave the fort. Let those, 
on the contrary, who wish to be free men rally to me." 

"We will die for liberty!" cried the soldiers. 



56 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



"I will blow up everything if the French enter 
this fort !" declared Dessalines, waving the torch over 
the powder, and thus showing the result of L'Ouver- 
ture's teaching. 

How determined they were to fight and, if neces- 
sary, to die for liberty is recorded by M. Firmin, the 
Haitian statesman, as follows : 

"The retreat at Crete a Pierrot, where the troops 
of Dessalines opened for themselves a passage by the 
bayonet through an enemy ten times more numerous 
than themselves is one of the most brilliant feats of 
arms in the history of Haiti." 

General Le Clerc soon saw that he had underes- 
timated Toussaint L'Ouverture's army. For soon 
after landing in Saint Domingo he had remarked: 

"All the Negroes, when they see an army, will lay 
down their arms. They will be only too glad to ob- 
tain pardon." 

Aside from the attacks of the black troops, the 
French soldiers were suffering with a fever which 
was destroying thousands of them. Therefore, Le 
Clerc made advantageous terms with all soldiers who 
deserted L'Ouverture and joined his army. Finally 
he offered terms of peace to the Haitians, and there- 
by caused the surrender of Christophe's and Dessa- 
lines's troops. 

One day, even Toussaint L'Ouverture decided to 
accept Le Clerc's terms of peace. So one morning 
he went to his headquarters. There he thanked the 
grenadiers and dragoons for the faithfulness and 
bravery they had exhibited in liis army. For the 
last time he reviewed them as they passed before him 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 57 



on parade, and, after telling them about the terms of 
peace that he had accepted, he bade them goodbye. 

On May 5, 1802, L'Ouverture signed the treaty of 
peace, whose important articles included the follow- 
ing attractive ones: 

I. The inviolable liberty of all citizens of Saint 
Domingo. 

LI. The maintenance in their grades and in their 
functions of all officers, military and civil, of the 
indigenes. 

III. Toussaint L'Ouverture to retain his staff, 
and to retire to whatever part of the colonial terri- 
tory he might choose. 

Thus after waging two wars for their liberty, the 
Blacks of Haiti put aside their arms and returned to 
their homes. 

Toussaint L'Ouverture returned to his home and 
family as the General of a division ; for the authori- 
ties in France had put General Le Clerc at the head 
of civil and military affairs in Haiti. 

One day, a few weeks later, General L'Ouverture 
received the following letter, which had been sent to 
please General Le Clerc. 

"My Dear General: 

"We have some arrangements to make together that it 
is impossible to explain by letter, which we may terminate 
in a conference of an hour. If I had not already gone beyond 
my strength in the work and arrangement of details, I would 
have been the bearer of my own message today; but not 
being able to go out at this time, I must ask you to do what 
I have done — if you have got over your indisposition. Let it 
be tomorrow. When the question is the accomplishment of 
good we ought not to postpone. 

"You will not find in my rural habitation all the enter- 



58 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



tainment and comfort that I would wish in receiving you, 
but you will find the hearty welcome of a brave man whose 
strongest desire is the prosperity of the colony and your 
own personal happiness. 

"If Madame Toussaint, whose acquaintance I very much 
desire to make, wishes to accompany you it will afford me 
great satisfaction. If she requires a horse I will send her 
mine. I assure you, general, that you will never find a 
friend more sincere than myself. With the confidence of the 
captain-general, and the friendship of all who are subordi- 
nate to him, you will enjoy perfect tranquillity. 

"I cordially salute you, 

"Brunet." 

"P. S. Your servant who is on his way to Port-au- 
Prince, passed here this morning. His passport was in due 
form on his departure." 

Poor Toussaint L'Ouverture accepted General 
Brunet's invitation, and in consequence became a 
doomed man. For after being received cordially at 
the appointed place by General Brunet, he was ar- 
rested by officers, who were serving under General 
Brunet. Soon afterwards, L'Ouverture with his wife 
and sons were put on board the frigate "Le Creole" 
to be carried to France. 

As brave L'Ouverture left Haiti, he looked at his 
captors and said : 

"In overthrowing me, you have broken down only 
the trunk of the tree of liberty for the Blacks; it 
will spring up again from its roots which are many 
and deep." 

However, in spite of his captivity, L'Ouverture 
was loyal to France. Once he said to one of his sons : 

"My boy, you will one day go back to Saint Do- 
mingo ; forget that France murdered your father." 

One day, he was taken from the ship and carried 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 59 



to Fort Joux, where, so very near to beautiful Paris, 
he was imprisoned, and hurried to the fate which 
the world now regrets and dislikes to recall, For, 
like Joan of Arc, L'Ouverture was tortured to death. 
First he was separated from his family and his 
friends and finally from Mars Plaisir, his faithful 
servant, who would have died to save the life of his 
great black General. He was deprived of everything 
that gave comfort to him. When he was made to 
give up his uniform he only said: "Is it necessary 
to add this humiliation to my misfortune?" 

Upon having to give up his razor so that he would 
have nothing with which to commit suicide, he said : 
"I have been misjudged, if I am thought to be lack- 
ing in courage to support my sorrow." 

Now poor L'Ouverture asked again and again for 
a trial. As he did not have one, he wanted the Minis- 
ter of Marine to help him, so he wrote the following- 
letter : 

"Citizen Minister : 

"I was arrested with all my family by the order of the 
Captain-General, who had given me his word of honor, and 
had promised me the protection of the French government. 
I make bold to claim his justice and his benevolence. If I 
have committed faults, I alone should suffer the penalties. 
I beg you, Citizen Minister, to interest yourself with the 
First Consul in behalf of my family and myself. 

"Salutation and respect, 

"Toussaint L'Ouverture." 

As L'Ouverture received no help from the Min- 
ister of Marine, he became sadder and more alone as 
the days passed away. He often cheered himself by 
thinking about his family. Once he wrote to his wife 
as follows: 



60 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



"My dear Wife: 

"I profit of the occasion of a good general to let you 
hear from me. I was sick on arriving here, but the com- 
mandant of this place, who is a man of humanity, has 
given me all aid possible. Thanks to God, I am much better. 
You know my fondness to my family and my devotion to 
the woman that I cherish. Why have you not let me hear 
from you ? Greet all for me. I pray them to conduct them- 
selves well, to exercise much wisdom and virtue. I have said 
to you already that you are responsible for their conduct 
before God and with respect to your husband. Let me know 
if Placide is with you. I embrace you most tenderly. 

"I am for life your faithful husband, 

"Toussaint L'Ouverture." 

Thereafter, poor L'Ouverture was miserable from 
morning till night. Often he was hungry and cold. 
Months passed and still he was kept there in the 
dungeon in poverty with naught to comfort him. He 
spent weary hours wondering about his black breth- 
ren in Haiti. But like a crumbling oak in a deserted 
forest, he steadily weakened in the lonely prison. 

So to the French authorities, the commandant of 
Fort Joux made the following report: 

"Toussaint is always sick; he has a constant 
cough; for several days, he has been compelled to 
carry his left arm in a sling ; and his voice is singu- 
larly changed." 

Soon afterwards L'Ouverture was left alone in 
the prison, and he nearly starved. A few days later 
he was left again. But once, during that miserable 
desertion, as he sat in the dungeon leaning his head 
against a chimney, he was relieved of the sorrows of 
Fort Joux. So when the commandant returned on 
April 7, 1803, instead of seeing the wretched black 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 61 



hero, he saw the frail remains of Toussaint L'Ouver- 
ture, the Moses of Haiti, of whom Wendell Phillips 
afterwards wrote thus: 

"You think me a fanatic, for you read history, 
not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But 
fifty years hence, when truth gets a hearing, the 
Muse of history will put Phoceon for the Greek, 
Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, Fay- 
ette for France, choose Washington as the bright 
consummate flower of our earlier civilization, then 
dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear 
blue above them all the name of the soldier, the 
statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture." 



JEAN JACQUES DESSALINES 

Now, when Jean Jacques Dessalines, the fierce, 
black warrior in General Le Clerc's army, heard that 
the French had captured Toussaint L'Ouverture, he 
became as angry as Thor, the old Norse God, became 
when he found that the giants had stolen his ham- 
mer. For just as Thor's hammer had kept beautiful 
Asgard a free home for the Norse Gods, just so 
Toussaint L'Ouverture had kept rich Haiti a free 
country for the Black Folk. 

But Dessalines was as wise as he was angry ; for 
in his heart was a great resolution. So he was care- 
ful to obey every command made by General Le 
Clerc. He even assisted in carrying out his order to 
disarm the blacks; though he believed that L'Ouver- 
ture had spoken wisely when he said to the blacks, 
"Your gun is your liberty." And Dessalines rejoiced 
and took heart when he saw thousands of his people 
either escaping to the mountains with their muskets 
or suffering torture rather than give them up. Mean- 
while he kept his resolution a secret, though he trem- 
bled to tell his friends about it when he heard his 
people saying: 

"Our freedom is lost ! We are serving as slaves 
at Guadeloupe and Martinique." 

By and by, on the thirteenth of October, in the 
year 1802, a brave mulatto in General Le Clerc's 
army led the colored troops in an insurrection 
against the French. 

Knowing that his people were thoroughly dis- 
gusted with French rule, Dessalines joined the re- 
volting troops. He soon raised a powerful army with 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 63 



which he showed that L'Ouverture spoke the truth 
when he looked at his captors and said : 

"In overthrowing me, you have broken down only 
the trunk of the tree of liberty for the Blacks; it will 
spring up again from its roots which are many and 
deep." 

Thereafter the French and the blacks fought des- 
perately. As General Le Gere had died with fever, 
General Rochambeau from France had been given 
command of the French army. He determined to de- 
stroy the black troops. He even turned armies of 
bull dogs upon them. And he fed the dogs upon his 
black prisoners. 

But Dessalines and his troops would not surren- 
der. They determined to have liberty, or to die fight- 
ing for it. Whenever it was possible his soldiers were 
helped by the brave black women of Haiti. Some- 
times the women were killed for giving food and 
shelter to the revolting troops. But they always 
died defending the cause of their countrymen. Once 
as a black woman received fatal wounds, she ex- 
pressed the sentiment of her countrymen by saying, 
"It is sweet to die when liberty is lost." 

Now Dessalines rejoiced to see the Blacks and 
the mulattoes fighting together for freedom ; and he 
thanked the private citizens for helping his army. 
To encourage the soldiers and citizens to fight and 
to endure privations, he often said to them : 

"We must make Haiti free and independent." 

Then his troops won battles that made the whole 
world praise them. 

Dessalines' army steadily won ground, and re- 
lentlessly pursued the French. "The ninth of Octo- 



64 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



ber, 1803, Dessalines with an army of 22,000 sea- 
soned veterans, and with ample supplies of military 
material laid siege to Port-au-Prince. General La- 
vallette commanded the French troops enclosed 
within the city and its environs; it is impossible to 
give the exact strength of his command. Dessalines 
maintained the siege with frequent attacks for about 
a month with the apparent purpose of bringing about 
the evacuation which finally resulted. The whole 
French force them concentrated at the Cape. Here 
within a few square miles of territory all that re- 
mained of the splendid army that France had sent to 
reduce a handful of Negro and mulatto brigands 
were to make their last stand. The Cape, surrounded 
with walls and bristling with fortifications, Rocham- 
beau believed practically unassailable. He could 
hardly fancy that a general attack would soon be 
made. 

"Dessalines, however, was now fast approaching 
his zenith. Leaving Petion to hold Port-au-Prince, 
and without giving his army any repose, he turned 
his march northward and by the time Lavallette's 
forces were landed and stationed at the Cape, he, 
with his victorious army, was under the walls of the 
cape." 

Dessalines led his troops to victory though some- 
times he made them suffer hardships. But he never 
sent his troops where he would not go. He liked to 
fight in the most dangerous places. "When he went 
into battle, it was like a workman preparing himself 
for work; he put off his coat, rolled up his shirt 
sleeves and with arms as bare as the blade of his 
sword, he was a blaze of fire, intrepid, and at the 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 65 



same time full of resource. If victorious, he made 
nothing of it; he thought of nothing but amusement, 
and the dance. He forced his soldiers to cross im- 
passable mountains, to traverse plains at giants' 
pace, without pay and badly fed ; and harassed and 
fatigued to assault and carry towns in the face of 
blazing artillery. He did not fear to assume upon 
his own head the entire responsibility of his meas- 
ures. 'What to me is the opinion of posterity/ said 
he, 'so I save my country?' " 

Now, one day General Rochambeau reported to 
France that his army was in a desperate condition, 
and that it was "pressed almost to death by absolute 
famine." It was also being destroyed by the Haitian 
fever. 

So, one day, just when Dessalines wanted freedom 
more than he had wanted it since his birth in Haiti 
in the year 1760 ; just when he was about to storm the 
French quarters and by sheer force crush the 
troops therein, he received a message in which he 
read that General Rochambeau had surrendered. 

Now, when the Haitians saw that they really were 
free, they would have none to rule them but their 
brave deliverer, Jean Jacques Dessalines. So on the 
eighth of October in the year 1804 he was crowned 
First Emperor of Haiti. 

Unfortunately Dessalines soon displeased his sub- 
jects. He ruled them as rigidly as he ever had ruled 
his soldiers upon the battle fields. So many of them 
hated him, and consequently formed insurrections. 
On October 17, 1806, Dessalines attempted to over- 
come a revolt. He rode in the midst of the revolting- 
soldiers who did not salute him with military honors. 



66 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



"What does this mean?" cried Dessalines as he 
noticed their neglect. 

But a non-commissioned black officer shot him 
to death. Thus ended the life of Jean Jacques Dessa- 
lines, the brave ex-slave, who never ceased from bat- 
tling till he had fulfilled his resolve to make beautiful 
little Haiti an independent country. 



JOSEPH JENKIN ROBERTS 

Long, long ago, soon after the American Coloni- 
zation Society had caused Liberia, Africa, to be set 
aside as the country of the Black Folk : and while 
the native black tribes kept fighting to redeem the 
land which they had sold to their American brothers, 
Joseph Jenkin Roberts, a brave mulatto just twenty 
years old, left his native land, the United States, and 
moved into the new colony. 

At first Roberts worked as a trader. And he 
was a very good trader. He was gracious and honest. 
So when the fierce Chief Gatumba led his tribe, the 
Golas, against the Liberians, the black colonists chose 
Roberts to lead them against the Golas.^ Roberts and 
his forces finally put the natives to flight. 

One day, Thomas H. Buchanan, a brave white 
man, who was the governor of Liberia, died. Then 
the colonists elected Roberts as governor of the land. 

As soon as Roberts became their governor, he 
found that Liberia needed the respect and friend- 
ship of England, France, America and other large 
countries. So he told his countrymen that Liberia 
should become a free and independent country so 
that it could enjoy the rights of a free country. 

Thereupon the colonists held a constitutional 
convention of July 26, 1847, and declared Liberia to 
be a free country. They also framed and adopted a 
constitution for Liberia. 

In October of the same year, Roberts was elected 
President of the land. He faithfully served his coun- 
try for four terms. Afterwards he became the presi- 
dent of the Liberia College, an important school in 



68 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 

the country. And again in the year 1872 he was 
elected President of Liberia. 

But in the year 1876, just one year after he gave 
up the office of presidency, he had a severe chill, and 
on the twenty-first of February during the same 
year, he died while he was beloved and honored by 
the brave black Liberians whom, for many years, he 
had served faithfully. 



JOSE DO PATROCINO 

Once upon a time a black bondwoman in Brazil 
had a son named Jose Do Patrocinio. 

Now when Jose was a small boy, he resolved to 
become a strong advocate for the emancipation of 
the Black Folk of Brazil, for he hated slavery. He 
had seen his mother suffer as a slave, and he often 
grieved because of her condition and because of the 
trials of other slaves. 

By and by, he was sent to school where he showed 
talent in writing: and speaking. Years afterwards 
he left school to begin writing for a paper called The 
New Gazette. He wrote many articles that expressed 
his condemnation of slavery, and had them published 
in the paper. He also traveled throughout Brazil 
and in foreign countries and advocated the caus^ of 
his people. 

Finally he persuaded Done Isabel, the Regent of 
Brazil, to espouse the cause of his people. There- 
upon, on the thirteenth of May in the year 1888, Done 
Isabel emancipated the 1,500,000 black slaves in 
Brazil. 

Twelve years after the emancipation of his peo- 
ple, Jose Do Patrocinio died, but until this day he is 
beloved by the Brazilian Blacks, and is honored as 
the great statesman who brought about their free- 
dom without the shedding of blood. 



CRISPUS ATTUCKS 

Once upon a time, in the clays of the great George 
Washington, there lived in big, beautiful America a 
tall, strong slave named Crispus Attucks, who was 
as bold as a knight. And on the eastern shore of 
the same fair land there were thirteen colonies of 
brave English subjects, who, with their slaves, Cris- 
pus Attucks and his black fellow-slaves, were con- 
quering the land. 

Now, Crispus Attucks and the colonists loved 
freedom as dearly as the birds loved flying in the 
air. So, once while the colonists were warring 
against the French for the possession of the Ohio 
Valley, a fairy-like land to the west of them, the tall, 
strong slave ran away from his owner. 

To induce his friends and even strangers to help 
him find his tall, strong slave, Attucks' owner had 
published in a paper called the Boston Gazette or 
the Weekly Journal the following advertisement: 

"Run away from his master, William Brown of Fram- 
ington, on the 30th of September last, a mulatto fellow, 
about twenty-seven years of age, named Crispus, 6 feet, 2 
inches high, short curl'd hair, his knees nearer together 
than common, had on a light color'd bear-skin coat, a plain 
brown fustain jacket and a checked woolen shirt. 

"Whoever shall take up said runaway, and convey him to 
his master, shall have ten pounds old tenor reward, and all 
necessary charges paid. And all masters of vessels and all 
others are hereby cautioned against concealing or carrying 
off said servant on penalty of the law. 

"Boston, October 2, 1750." 

But the runaway was not returned. In fact he 
was given very little attention by the readers of the 
paper; for they were concerned sufficiently about 
the war to allow his owner to put on his three-cor- 
nered hat and go alone after him. And after they 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 71 



had driven the French from the Ohio Valley, they 
were too happy over their victory to care whether 
he was lost or found. 

Meanwhile Attucks had come from his hiding- 
place, and had begun living peaceably among the free 
Blacks. Gradually, he became a big-hearted, loyal 
American, who would have given his life to save the 

land. 

Soon afterwards the colonists were taxed by Eng- 
land to pay the debts made by their war with France. 
Now, like the Plebeans of ancient Rome, the colon- 
ists wanted to help make the laws of their country, 
and to help decide upon the taxes imposed upon them. 
Hence they asked to be represented in the English 
Parliament, the body that taxed them. But they 
might as well have asked for seats on the moon, for 
they were kept out of Parliament by its members 
who said: 

"Many of the towns, boroughs and shires of these 
British Isles have no representative in Parliament, 
and yet the Parliament taxes them." 

But the Americans answered, "Taxation without 
representation is tyranny!" 

Then English troops were sent to enforce the laws 
of Parliament. 

Thereupon many Americans braved the fury of 
England, and fired their countrymen to resist their 
oppressors. 

"The sun of American Liberty has set!" said their 
great statesman, Benjamin Franklin. 

"Give me liberty or give me death !" declared the 
famous patriot, Patrick Henry, in Virginia. 

All America was astir over the quartering of 



72 STO RIES OF BLACK FOLK 

British troops among the colonists. And Crispus At- 
tucks, the true American, wrote to the governor of 
the Province in which he lived as follows: 
"Sir: 

"You will hear from us with astonishment. You ought 
to hear from us with horror. You are chargeable before God 
and man for our blood. The soldiers here were but passive 
instruments, mere machines, neither moral nor voluntary 
agents in our destruction. You were a free agent. You 
acted coolly and with all the premeditated malice, not against 
us in particular, but against the people in general, which 
in the sight of the law, is an ingredient in the composition 
of murder. You will hear further from me hereafter. 

"Crispus Attucks." 

But regardless of the protests of the colonists, the 
British soldiers remained in America ; and, once dur- 
ing the year 1770, some of the troops cut down a 
liberty pole in New York. Thereupon the Americans 
began defying the troublesome troops. Crispus At- 
tucks said, "The way to get rid of these soldiers is to 
attack the main guard ; strike at the root ; this is the 
nest!" . 

Finally, on the fifth of March in the year 1770, 
Attucks led a party of citizen through the streets of 
Boston till a detachment of the quartered army was 
reached on State Street. There, before the soldiers, 
Attucks and his followers pled the American cause. 

The troops lost patience with the little band, and 
fired upon its speakers. Crispus Attucks was mor- 
tally wounded in the affray that followed. Soon 
after his death, his remains were carried to Faneuil 
Hall and viewed by thousands of people, who recog- 
nized him, as the world does today, as the first Black 
martyr of the American Revolution. 



ANDREW BRYAN 

Long, long ago, Andrew Bryan, a pious and 
blameless slave, lived among the pines and flowers, 
the brooklets and meadows of the beautiful state of 
Georgia. 

Now, Bryan was as splendid a creature as the 
things of nature, that were budding and blooming 
and singing in obedience to the will of the Creator, 
upon his owner's plantation. And he was a devout 
Baptist. Having heard the fiery sermons of a black 
minister named George Liele, Bryan determined to 
dedicate his life as a minister of the Gospel. So upon 
hearing of Liele's departure from Georgia for the 
purpose of preaching to the Black Folk in Jamaica, 
Bryan began preaching in Savannah, Georgia. At 
first he was allowed to preach in a building in a sec- 
tion of the city called Yamacraw. But, within a short 
while, he was ordered to move his church. Being 
unable to secure a suitable building for his services, 
he began preaching in a barn. 

Soon after founding the church in the year 1788, 
Bryan began enduring trials because of his zeal for 
spreading the Faith. With ease he interested the 
slaves in the doctrine that he preached. Hence he 
was opposed by the slave-holders who did not want 
their slaves to spend so much time in church. As 
Bryan's influence over his followers was sufficient to 
cause them to attend church at all hazards, he pro- 
voked his opposers to use drastic measures against 
his work. Often the members of the church were 
whipped or imprisoned for regularly attending the 
First Bryan Baptist Church, as his church was called. 
Even Bryan was imprisoned, and once he was 



74 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



whipped until the blood fairly poured from him. But 
he continued preaching, and often was heard to say, 
"I would suffer death for the cause of Jesus Christ !" 
Finally he was allowed to preach as freely as he 
chose. And within a few years he had received many 
members into his church. Thus, for many years, he 
caused the Christian faith to spread among the 
Black Folk of Georgia. And, finally, when he was 
taken out of the world, he was spoken of as being 
"the instrument of doing more good among the poor 
slaves than all the learned Doctors in America ever 
had done." 



RICHARD ALLEN 

Once upon a time a poor slave named Richard 
Allen began preaching the gospel. He began preach- 
ing under adverse circumstances. He was twenty- 
two years old, and of course he had to work through 
the day, but he often preached at night to his fellow- 
slaves and to many other people, for he was anxious 
to spread the Christian religion among sinners, and 
he rejoiced at every opportunity that he found to 
tell them about the great Jehovah. Once, while con- 
ducting a service, he saw his owner in the congrega- 
tion ; knowing that his owner was unconverted, Allen 
made a strong appeal for the cause of Christ. Final- 
ly, he heard his owner professing the faith of Christ. 

In time, he traveled through the Middle States 
and caused thousands of people to embrace the 
Christian religion. 

Now in the time of Allen's earlv evangelistic 
work, he had to join a white Methodist Church, be- 
cause the Black Folk had no churches of their own. 
Finally he realized that his people needed a church of 
their own. Hence in the year 1787, he accomplished 
one of the most important and noble deeds ever per- 
formed among the Black Folk in America. He 
founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He became its first Bishop, and until his death — 
which occurred many years after his elevation to the 
Bishopric — he remained the head of the religious 
organization which, in time, became known and 
widely followed throughout the world. 



BENJAMIN BANNECKER 

Now, in due season, Benjamin Bannecker, the 
grandson of a native black African, was born. He 
was as poor as the pet animals that he played with. 
He had nothing that he could have lived without and 
continued serving the world to the fullest extent of 
his desires and talents. Through childhood he lived 
with his relations in a very humble home in Balti- 
more County, Maryland. 

Little Benjamin was busy from morning till 
night. While many children of his times were as 
playful and wild as the rabbits of the fields, he was 
as quiet and studious as a sage. He borrowed many 
books, and used them to teach himself to read. Thus 
he studied until he became a scholar. 

One clay, after Bannecker had become a wise man, 

he invented a clock that could strike off the hours. 

His device was the first one of its kind to be made 

in the United States. Immediately, his fame as an 

inventor spread abroad. He kept studying, and 

therefore published an almanac that contained in- 
formation about the weather in and about the state 
of Maryland during the years 1792-1806. Many 
American students liked his almanac. So when the 
City of Washington, D. C, was being planned, the 
scholars who admired him employed him to help 
survey it. 

Bannecker lived many years as a quiet, thought- 
ful student. During the last years of his life he 
lived alone. 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 77 



One clay his neighbors missed seeing him in his 

garden, and they noticed that his house remained 

closed longer than it usually did. So they entered his 

home, and found wise, black Bannecker lying where 

he had died. Soon afterwards they buried the re- 
mains of Bannecker, the inventor and the astrono- 
mer, who having been born in due season had con- 
tributed a bright page to the history of the American 
Black Folk during their dark years of slavery. 




SOJOURNER TRUTH 



SOJOURNER TRUTH 

"Mammy, what makes you groan so?" asked Isa- 
bella, a little black slave of olden times as she watched 
her miserable mother swaying in the starlight, that 
gleamed upon the estate of her owner, a Dutchman 
living in Hurley, Ulster County, New York. 

"I am groaning to think of my poor children ! I 
do not know where they be ; they don't know where 
I be ! I look up at the stars— and they look at the 
stars !" Poor Betsy answered, and continued groan- 
ing. 

So James, the father of little Isabella, could have 
cried out in anguish, but, having a sterner nature, 
he sorrowed silently. 

In compliance to the laws of New York, when 
Betsy and James were forty years old, they were 
liberated, and, with nowhere to go and nothing to 
live upon, they soon were forced to trudge away, 
leaving little Isabella as a helpless slave. 

Isabella was as thriving as the golden grain rip- 
ening in the southern fields, so when she was nine 
years old she was sold for a good price to a family 
that spoke English, a language unknown to Isabella. 
Hence, many times, she was punished severely for 
misunderstanding the commands of her owners. On 
one Sabbath morning, however, as the blood poured 
from her back as she was being whipped for a reason 
that she never understood, she stopped begging- 
mercy from her oppressor, and began praying to God 
for help. 

Soon afterwards, she was visited by her father> 
and was successful in confiding her sad experiences 
to him. As the result of his visit, she was bought 
soon afterwards by a kind slave-holder. 



80 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



For a year and a half, little Isabella was happy, 
then she was sold to a family the mother of which 
was adverse to the Black Folk, and, naturally, was 
disposed to show animosity for Isabella. The father 
and little daughter of the family, however, were 
pleased with her, and often praised her work. 

"Isabella can do more work than six common peo- 
ple can do," often remarked the father. 

"She half does her work, that is why she can 
work so fast," said the mother of the household, one 
day, as she pointed to some clingy vegetables that had 
been cooked by Isabella. 

But Isabella's reputation was saved by the little 
daughter, who later discovered a plot of another 
servant named Kate, and cried out, "Poppee! Kate 
has been putting ashes among the vegetables ! I saw 
her do it ! Look at those that fell outside of the ket- 
tle! You can see now what makes them so dingy 
every morning, though Isabella washes them clean." 

For seventeen years she was a faithful slave in 
that home where she was married, and where she be- 
came the mother of several children, who, except the 
youngest one, in time were sold from her. 

Soon one morning, when Isabella was thirty-nine 
years old, she left her owner's home, carrying her 
baby with her. On the following night, she stopped 
at the home of some kind people, and hired herself as 
a servant to them. 

Soon afterwards, she was found by her owner, 
who said, "Well, Isabella, so you have run away from 



me." 



"No, I' did not run away," answered Isabella ; "I 
walked away by daylight, because you promised to 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 81 



liberate me one year before my fortieth birthday in 
appreciation of the many years that I have served 
your family." 

"You must go back with me," said the owner. 

"No, I won't go back with you!" answered Isa- 
bella. 

"Well, I shall take the child," he answered. 

"Neither shall you take my child !" cried Isabella. 

Thereupon Isabella's kind employers paid to her 
owner the price he exacted for her baby and herself. 
Then they liberated her. 

For several years Isabella strove merely for her 
livelihood. But, finally, she began traveling over the 
country teaching the story of Christ to the Black 
Folk, and lecturing for the cause of the abolitionists, 
a body of brave people, who advocated the emanci- 
pation of the Blacks in America. During that time, 
she called herself Sojourner Truth. 

Many people wondered about the source of her 
name. And Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author 
of the famous book called Uncle Tom's Cabin, once 
said to her, "Well, Sojourner, did you always go by 
this name?" 

"No, 'deed, my name was Isabella," said So- 
journer, "but when I left the house of bondage, I 
left everything behind. I wa'n't goin' to keep nothin' 
of Egypt on me, an' so I went to the Lord an' asked 
him to give me a new name. An' the Lord gave me 
Sojourner, because I was to travel up an' down the 
land, showin' the people their sins, an' bein' a sign 
unto them. Afterward, I told de Lord I wanted an- 
other name, 'cause everybody else had two names; 



82 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 

an' de Lord give me Truth, because I was to declare 
de truth to de people." 

In time, Sojourner became famous as an aboli- 
tionist and as a suffragist. She could neither read 
nor write, hence, she was not raised above her 
brethren by knowledge from books, but by her un- 
usual abilities, her strong personality and her 
strange philosophy. And by- them she became the 
Libyan Sibyl of the Black Folk. She was revered 
and praised by people of all classes. Mrs. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe spoke of her as follows, "I never 
knew a person who possessed so much of that subtle, 
controlling power, called presence, as she." Wendell 
Phillips, the remarkable abolitionist said, "I have 
known a few words from Sojourner Truth to electri- 
fy an audience. At a meeting in Faneuil Hall, Fred- 
erick Douglass, the great advocate for the freedom 
of his people, the Black Folk, was about to lose hope 
for his cause, but Sojourner Truth lifted her long 
finger, and asked, loud enough to be heard by all, 
'Frederick, is God dead?' That was all she said, but 
it was enough." 

Sojourner was as witty as she was wise. Once, 
she answered an old friend, who inquired about her 
occupation, as follows, "Years ago, when I lived in 
the city of New York, my occupation was scouring 
brass door-knobs ; but now I go about scouring cop- 
perheads." 

At another time she went to the White House and 
said to the marshal, "I want to see President Lin- 
coln." 

"Well, the President is busy, and you can't see 
him now," answered the marshal. 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 83 



"Yes, I mus' see him. If he knew I was here, he'd 
come down an' see me,"answered Sojourner. 

Then the marshal went to tell the President about 
his strange visitor. 

"I do believe she is Sojourner Truth," said Presi- 
dent Lincoln, "bring her up here." 

Within a few minutes the President was saying, 
"Sojourner Truth, how glad I am to see you!" 

"Mr. President," said Sojourner, "when youfirst 
took your seat I feared you would be torn to pieces, 
for I likened you unto Daniel, who was thrown into 
de lions' den, an' ef de lions did not tear you to pieces, 
I knew dat it would be God clat had saved you ; an' 
I said ef He spared me I would see you befo' de fo' 
years expired, an' He has done so, an' now I am here 
to see you for myself. I never hearn of you befo' you 
was talked of for President." 

"I had heard of you many times before that," 
answered the President. Then he showed a Bible 
that he had received from the Black Folk of Balti- 
more, Maryland. 

"This is beautiful indeed," said Sojourner, looking 
at his Bible, "the colored people have given this to 
the head of the government, and that government 
once sanctioned laws that would not permit its peo- 
ple to learn enough to enable them to read this book." 

As Sojourner needed alms to support her works, 
she handed a photograph of herself to President Lin- 
coln and said, "It's got a black face, but a white back, 
an' I'd like one of yours with a green back." 

The President laughed, gave her some paper 
money and said, "There's my face with a green 
back." 



84 S TORIE S OF BLACK FOLK 

Then Sojourner showed her book for autographs, 
and as she afterwards said, "He took the little book, 
and with the same hand that signed the death war- 
rant of slavery, he wrote as follows, 'For Aunty So- 
journer Truth, Oct. 29, 1864. A. Lincoln.' " 

After the Civil War, Sojourner traveled about 
lecturing to the Black Folk on Proper Living. Once 
she said in an address to them, "Be clean ! Be clean ! 
For cleanliness is Godliness." At one time she peti- 
tioned Congress to colonize the freemen in a portion 
of the western section of the country. Her petition 
failed in Congress, but it caused an exodus of the 
Black Folk to that section. 

Thus, Sojourner Truth, the most remarkable 
black woman of her day, worked for the elevation 
of the American Black Folk until she was over a hun- 
dred years old. And, before she passed from this 
resourceful and attractive world, November 26, 1883, 
she bequeathed to forthcoming workers in need of 
inspiration against adversity, the secret of her rise, 
which she expressed thus, "I am a self-made woman." 



FREDERICK DOUGLASS 

Once there was a poor, miserable slave. He was 
allowed to have nothing of his own, and he was used 
as meanly as the beasts of burden on his owner's 
plantation. He was wen so little food that he was 
hungry many of his days ; and as he was kept in rags 
from his head to his feet, he shivered in the winter's 
cold and swooned in the summer's heat. Through 
all the days, except the Sabbaths, he was worked in 
the fields of cotton where he was given nothing for 
his labor but curses and beatings by the overseer of 
his owner's slaves. 

Now, once as poor Frederick lay wounded and 
bleeding in a fence-corner where he had been flogged 
nigh unto death by the overseer because of his fail- 
ure to break a pair of oxen, he thought more seri- 
ously than he ever had done before of his plight. He 
thought of his black mother, who had been dead for 
many a year, and he wished that she was alive and 
with him to bind his wounds and to show him mercy 
and love. Then he thought of the overseer and of 
his flogging. Poor Frederick, as he was thinking 
thus, he was miserable sufficiently to have been 
made so by the Creator for a noble purpose. While 
thinking thus, he was inspired to begin resisting con- 
ditions. Finally he cried, "I shall take no more flog- 
ging!" 

Then he arose and went to his owner whose pro- 
tection he failed to get, so he had to return to the 
dreaded overseer. But during Frederick's next 
flogging, he dealt sufficient blows upon the overseer 
to send him off in rage and in pain and in no wise 
willing to try to flog him again. 



86 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 

As Frederick realized the probability of his serv- 
ing another man against whom he could not protect 
himself, he remained as miserable as ever he had 
been. 

But by being miserable by day and by night, he 
was made to despise his lot in life. One night, as 
he was listening to the sad singing of his fellow- 
slaves in a secret religious service, he was impressed 
by a strain of words as follows : 

"Run to Jesus, shun the clanger, 

I don't expect to stay much longer here." 

"Ah," Frederick finally cried while considering a 
literal meaning of those words, "they express my 
thoughts. I don't expect to stay much longer here ; 
I shall flee from bondage !" 

For many years, Frederick often prayed to God 
for the opportunity to escape from bondage. Mean- 
while he was hired by his owner to several slave- 
holders. During those years, he determined to culti- 
vate himself, and to assist his fellow-slaves. Now, 
years before, while a small boy, one of his owners 
had taught him a bit about reading. So as he was 
being passed from slave-holder to slave-holder, he 
was faithful to study reading and writing while 
serving those whose tasks he was able to complete 
in time to pursue an education in secret. Once, he 
studied to preach the gospel, and at midnight, when 
nobody else was about, he practiced preaching 
among the stock, which he would address as, "Dear 
Brethren." For a while he also taught in a Sab- 
bath School. 

One day, while the apprentice of a ship-builder 

in Baltimore, he realized that he had his desired op- 



FOR LITT L E FOLK 87 

portunity. So he disguised himself as a sailor, and 
escaped to New York City, where he soon was mar- 
ried to Miss Anna Murray, a lady whom he had 
known for some time. Frederick and his wife im- 
mediately moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, 
where he introduced himself as Frederick Douglass. 
Now, Frederick Douglass remembered the Black 
Folk in bondage, and as he wanted to help them, he 
began attending the meetings held by abolitionists, a 
noble group of advocates of freedom for the Black 
Folk. He met William Loyd Garrison, a leader 
among them, who caused Douglass to deliver a speech 
on slavery on the eleventh of August in the year 
1841. On that occasion, he vividly described the life 
of a slave, and thereby won many followers for the 
abolitionists, and made himself famous as a lecturer. 
His speech was published in many leading papers of 
America. Soon afterwards, Douglass became an 
agent for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. 
Then he traveled through many northern states, lec- 
turing and making friends for the abolitionists. He 
often advertised his own lectures. Once, at Graf- 
ton, Massachusetts, he went about the streets ring- 
ing a bell and crying', "Notice! Frederick Douglass, 
recently a slave, will lecture on American slavery, on 
Grafton Common, this evening at seven o'clock." On 
that evening, he delivered his speech entitled the 
"Open Sesame" to a large audience that sufficiently 
liked his speech for him to receive an invitation to 
give other lectures in the largest church in the town. 
Afterwards, to further the cause of the Black 
Folk, he wrote his autobiography, "Narrative of 
the Life of Frederick Douglass," and had it pub- 



88 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



lished ; his book bounteously served its purpose, and 
gradually passed from print. In the year 1845, he 
visited Europe where he made sentiment for the 
cause of the Blacks. His lecturing tour through Ire- 
land, Scotland and England was almost an ovation. 
While in Ireland, he was given a "soiree" and the 
administration of the temperance pledge by a noted 
priest. During a speech, he impressed his audience 
by saying, "Slavery is not what takes away any one 
right or property in man ; it takes away man himself, 
and makes him the property of his fellow. It is what 
unmans man, takes him from himself, dooms him as 
a degraded thing, ranks him with the bridled horse 
and muzzled ox, to be swayed by the caprice, and 
sold at the will of his master." 

Upon receiving a splendid Bible bound in gold 
from the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society 
in Belfast in 1846, he said, "I accept thankfully this 
Bible; and while it shall have the best place in my 
house, I trust also to give its precepts a place in my 
heart." 

Before leaving England, he was liberated by 
friends who bought his freedom from Hugh Auld, 
his American owner. He thanked them for their 
charity to him, but he also told them that "he had 
just as much right to sell Hugh Auld as Auld had 
to sell him." 

At times, Douglass almost despaired of seeing 
his people emancipated. But he often regained hope 
for the success of the cause of the Blacks by the 
sound doctrine of Sojourner Truth, for she, the most 
remarkable black woman of her age, could find some 
joy in all experiences and conditions. But Douglass 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 89 



never would have needed cheering during those 
years if he could have known that he and Sojourner, 
Garrison and other abolitionists were important and 
perhaps inspired forgers for the great and forth- 
coming Emancipator, who had grieved over the con- 
dition of his native section, the beautiful South, and, 
with sincerity, had said of slavery, "If ever I get a 
chance to hit that thing, I'll hit it hard !" 

But regardless of his ignorance of the future, 
Douglass struggled on in his efforts to the best of 
his ability. As many Americans in all sections be- 
lieved that slavery increased the wealth of the coun- 
try, and that it was a problem for each citizen to 
solve for himself, they often violently attacked the 
abolitionists. Once Douglass was beaten and 
wounded severely by them. But he had the respect 
of many noble people whom he liked to serve, and for 
whom he sometimes acted as spokesman for his race. 
Hence he once wrote to Mrs. Harriett Beecher Stowe 
as follows: 

"Rochester, March 8, 1853. 
"My dear Mrs. Stowe: 

"You kindly informed me when at your home a fortnight 
ago, that you designed to do something which would per- 
manently contribute to the improvement and elevation of 
the free colored people in the United States. You expressed 
an interest in such of this class as had become free by their 
exertions, and desired most of all to be of service to them. 
In what manner and by what means you can assist that 
class most successfully is the subject upon which you have 
done me the honor to ask my opinion. ... I assert then that 
poverty, ignorance, and degradation are the combined evils ; 
or in other words, these constitute the social disease of the 
free colored people in the United States. . . . 

"The plan which I humbly submit in answer to this in- 



90 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



quiry (and I hope that it may find favor with you, and with 
the many friends of humanity who honor, love and co-oper- 
ate with you) is the establishment in Rochester, New York, 
or in another part of the United States equally favorable to 
such an enterprise, of an Industrial College in which shall 
be taught several important branches of the mechanic arts. 
This College shall be open to colored youth. 

"Wishing you, dear madam, renewed health, a pleasant 
passage and safe return to your native land, 

"I am, most truly, your gratified friend, 

"Frederick Douglass." 

In the year 1847, Douglass began publishing in 
Rochester, New York, a paper he first called the 
"North Star," but which he afterwards called "Fred- 
erick Douglass' Paper." In the year 1858, he began 
publishing a magazine called "Douglass' Monthly," 
which ran until the year 1860, when it became a 
weekly paper. Of course, he stressed the 
needs of his people in his editions, which, like the 
slave-poems of John Greenleaf Whittier, those of 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the anti-slave arti- 
cles by James Russell Lowell, William Lloyd Garrison 
and other noted characters, spread sentiment favor- 
able to the cause of the Black Folk. 

Now, when John Brown, that great and strange 
supporter of the "Underground Railway" — a secret 
route used by slaves escaping from their owners, that 
fierce fighter in the "holy crusade for freedom" — 
the conflict between the citizens of Kansas and Mis- 
souri to decide whether Kansas would be a free or 
slave state — when he, fearless John Brown, with a 
force of dauntless white men and black slaves raided 
Virginia for the purpose of inciting the slaves to re- 
volt against slave-holders and thereby become eman- 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 91 



cipated, Frederick Douglass was charged with con- 
spiring with the raiders. So about the time that 
Brown was hanged and many of his followers cap- 
tured and sentenced, Douglass hurried to England 
to avoid being subjected to legal proceedings, that 
would have followed the requisition that was made 
for his arrest by the governor of Virginia. Of that 
trip to England, he afterwards said, "I fled from the 
talons of the American eagle to nestle in the mane of 
the British lion." 

But he soon returned to the United States to help 
make safe the "talons of the American eagle." Dur- 
ing the Civil War, he was in his native land, and at 
every opportunity was pleading for the enrollment 
of black soldiers in the federal army. Finally he was 
given the pleasure of seeing black men fighting for 
the Union. And Douglass never was made ashamed 
of them. Afterwards, he liked to tell about their 
bravery. He often spoke of two black heroes, one 
of whom said, while being carried bleeding and 
wounded from the position where he had held the 
American flag, "Boys, the old flag never touched 
the ground !" and the other black soldier said to his 
superior officer shortly before he was slain at his 
post, "Colonel, I will bring back these colors to you, 
or report to God the reason why !" 

Now, on the first of January in the year 1863, 
Douglass saw the end of slavery in the United States. 
For on that date, President Abraham Lincoln did 
with slavery as he resolved in previous years to do 
with it at his first opportunity — he "hit it hard." 
On that date, he issued his Emancipation Proclama- 
tion which gave liberty to every slave living in the 



92 STO RIES OF BLACK FOLK 

states then rebelling against the United States gov- 
ernment. 

Thereafter, Douglass lived as a faithful states- 
man. At times he served in important positions. 
Once he was marshal for the District of Columbia ; 
at another time he was the Recorder of Deeds for the 
District; and at another time he was Minister to 

Haiti. 

Once, several years after the Civil War in a jubi- 
lee meeting in which the Black Folk crowded Faneuil 
Hall to celebrate their emancipation, Douglass said, 
"I tell you the Negro is coming up. He is rising. 
Why, only a few years ago, we were the Lazarus of 
the South." Many years afterwards, he visited in 
Talbot County, Maryland, where he was born, and 
spoke there to the black school children as follows : 

"I once knew a little colored boy whose mother and 
father died when he was but six years old. He was a slave, 
and had no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in 
a hovel, and in cold weather would crawl into a meal bag 
head foremost, and leave his feet in the ashes to keep them 
warm. Often he would roast an ear of corn and eat it to 
satisfy his hunger, and many times has he crawled under 
the barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roast 
in the fire and eat. 

"That boy did not wear pants like you do, but a tow linen 
shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned to 
spell from an old Webster's spelling book, and to read and 
write from posters on cellar and barn doors, while boys and 
men would help him. He would then preach and speak, and 
soon became well known. He became Presidential Elector, 
United States Marshal, United States Recorder, United 
States Diplomat, and accumulated some wealth. He wore 
broadcloth, and didn't have to divide crumbs with the dogs 
under the table. That boy was Frederick Douglass. 

"What was possible for me is possible for you. Don't 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 93 



think because you are colored you can't accomplish anything. 
Strive earnestly to add to your knowledge. So long as you 
remain in ignorance, so long will you fail to command the 
respect of your fellow men." 

Douglas accumulated an estate estimated at about 
$200,000.00. After the death of his first wife, he was 
married to a lady from New England. He spent the 
last years of his life happily in his home in the sub- 
urbs of Washington, D. G. He never became a re- 
cluse. He lectured and helped his people as long as 
he lived. On February the twenty-second in the year 
1895, Douglass attended the National Woman's 
Council in Washington. He returned home and be- 
gan talking cheerfully to his wife, but suddenly he 
clasped his hands over his heart and fell unconscious ; 
within twenty minutes he passed from the world, 
which had grown to love him as the great black 
orator, abolitionist and statesman. 




BOOKER TALIAFERRO WASHINGTON 



BOOKER TALIAFERRO WASHINGTON 

Now, about five years before President Abraham 
Lincoln sent forth the black slaves to earn their for- 
tunes, King Thrift was born an American bondsman. 
But, for a while, he was known merely as the black 
boy, Booker. 

From a toddling child, little Booker was useful. 
Before he was able to speak plainly, he was faithful 
to hand to his mother the pots and pans that glis- 
tened and swung in the kitchen-cabin where he and 
she slept by night, and where she strove by day as 
the cook for their owner's family, a thriving group of 
happy people living in Franklin County, Virginia, 
upon a vast plantation that teemed with slaves and 
plenty. And as soon as he was large enough to hold 
the reins of horses, he was happy to assist the ladies 
of his owner's household when they rode horseback ; 
often, as he was employed thus, he was heard calling, 
"Gee ! Whoa !" to the horses as proudly as if he had 
been a nobleman driving his own team. 

Now Booker was ambitious also. Once after the 
ladies had returned from riding, he saw them linger 
to chatter and eat dainties, and he said to himself, 
"When I can talk and eat as they are doing, Ii will 
be as happy as ever I want to be !" 

At another time, he heard a black man reading 
a book, and he said, "When I can read as well as he 
is reading, I will want nothing more." Thus, though 
a slave, young Booker wanted freedom and educa- 
tion. 

As Booker was born when he could use his tal- 
ents to serve the Black Folk, he experienced and saw 
only a few horrors of slavery. Many nights he 



S6 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



went to his bed of rags very hungry, cold and pain- 
ful. Often, during those wretched times, he was 
served at midnight with a meal obtained and pre- 
pared mysteriously by his mother. He had but one 
garment, which was made of hard flax and therefore 
did not protect him from the winter's cold, and felt 
like the pricking of needles and pins. 

But before the overseer's rod fell upon him, 
Booker stood with his mother, brother and sister, 
and many other slaves listening to the reading of 
President Lincoln's famous Emancipation Proclama- 
tion. As soon as the blessed article was read, 
Booker's mother clasped her little ones and said, 
"Now, my children, we are free !" 

Booker did not understand what she meant, but 
he felt that happiness was in store for the Black 
Folk thereabout. And he never forgot the joy 
shown by the freemen on that day. 

One day, soon afterwards, little Booker, his 
mother, his brother and his sister left the plantation 
and went to seek their fortunes. They traveled 
in a wagon, upon which they slept all the nights dur- 
ing their journey except when they slept on the 
ground. After several days they stopped at Maiden, 
West Virginia. There they met Booker's step- 
father, who had been separated from his family for 
some time. 

Now, Booker's father had sent for his wife and 
little ones, and he had real joy in his heart because 
of their coming. He moved them into a little shanty, 
and soon found work for the boys in the salt fur- 
naces and coal mines. Thus the family became as 
snug as peas in a pod, and as cheerful as a brook. 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 97 



But one day Booker had a new thought in his 
head. He thought about going to school. He heard 
of a school where some children in Maiden were be- 
ing taught by a black teacher. 

"Please let me go to that school," said Booker to 
his parents. 

"My son," said his step-father, "when we do not 
need the money that you can earn during school 
hours, you may attend school." 

Poor Booker was disappointed, for he was anx- 
ious to learn to read and write. His mother was con- 
cerned about his disappointment. So she bought a 
book for him, and, though she could not read a single 
word, she tried to help him learn to read it; hence 
he and his mother often sat guessing the words in 
his book. Booker, however, finally learned to read 
by studying the labels printed on the sacks that he 
handled at the salt furnaces. 

One day, after he had learned to read, his step- 
father said, "Booker, you may attend school, if you 
will rise early every morning and do as much work 
as you possibly can before school opens." 

"I will get up at four o'clock, and work until I 
barely have time to walk to school," promised 
Booker. 

Soon afterwards Booker entered school. To his 
surprise he found that the other children there had 
a Christian name and a surname. Booker had but 
one name, so he thought hard and fast to think of 
what to say by the time the teacher asked about his 
name. Suddenly the teacher asked: 

"Booker, what is your full name?" 

"Booker Washington," he answered at once. Thus 



98 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 



he selected for himself the name of the first great 
American General and President. 

Of course Booker had little time to play. Once 
he played marbles on the Sabbath. 

Suddenly a pious old man stood over him and 
said, "You ought to be in the Sabbath School !" 

Booker followed the old man into a Sabbath 
School, and thereafter he attended that school when- 
ever he could do so. 

Soon afterwards he hired himself as a house-ser- 
vant to a stern, exacting old lady, who taught him 
to be thrifty and industrious. But as he disliked her 
sharp criticisms about his work, he ran away from 
her home and hired himself to a captain of a steam- 
boat. He was discharged, however, because he was 
unable to serve as a waiter. Thereupon he returned 
to the stern, exacting lady, and, after begging her 
pardon for running away, asked to be employed 
again. In time he became attached to her, and grew 
to admire her strong character. 

One day, Booker heard of Hampton Institute, the 
school where poor students could earn the expenses 
of their education. So he said to his mother, "I want 
to attend Hampton Institute." 

By and by, he really started to Hampton Institute 
with his clothes bundled at the end of a stick that 
he carried across his shoulder. Once he had to stop 
and earn his railroad fare by helping to unload a ves- 
sel for several days ; during the nights he slept under 
a plank sidewalk. Finally he reached Hampton In- 
stitute with fifty cents in his pockets. 

Booker feared that he would be sent away be- 
cause he was poor and ignorant. But he became 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 99 

hopeful of remaining when he heard the examiner 
say, "Young man, you may sweep this room." 

Of course he had learned to sweep rooms in the 
home of the stern, exacting lady. And as he felt 
that his education depended upon the sweeping of 
the room, he swept it again and again, and dusted it 
again and again. When the examiner returned, she 
rubbed her handkerchief over the tables and chairs ; 
as she found no dust upon them, she smiled at 
Booker and said: 

"I guess we will try you as a student." 

And her words filled Booker with joy. 

Booker studied faithfully for three years and 
then graduated with honor from the institution. One 
day he returned to his home in Maiden. As his mother 
had died, he had to begin his life-work as a teacher 
without her encouragement. For three years he 
taught in the school there, both day and night. He 
also taught in two Sunday Schools. Of his pupils 
he afterwards said : 

"J insisted that each pupil should come to school 
clean, should have his or her hands and face washed 
and hair combed, and should keep the buttons on his 
or her clothing." 

Thereafter he had his pupils keep the rules of 
cleanliness. 

When he left Maiden, he attended the Wayland 
Seminary at Washington, D. C. A year later he went 
to Hampton Institute to teach. 

One day the Principal of Hampton said to 
Booker Washington, "I want you to go to Tuskegee, 
Alabama, and there teach in a school." 

So Washington went to Tuskegee. For a while he 



100 STORIES OF BLACK FOLK 

taught about thirty pupils in an old church and in a 
little shanty. During heavy rains he taught under 
an umbrella held by a pupil to keep from getting wet 
in the leaky building. A few years later, after 
many pupils entered the school, Washington raised 
enough money by giving public programs, begging 
funds and by making loans to purchase a large farm 
and to erect several splendid buildings; upon the 
farm and into these buildings he moved the school, 
which was called the Tuskegee Normal and Indus- 
trial Institute. It grew larger and larger until there 
were over a thousand pupils in it, more than fifty 
buildings upon its grounds and over fifty teachers 
conducting classes there. 

So Booker Washington became famous in nearly 
all parts of the world because of his work at Tus- 
kegee Institute. Thousands of people visited the 
school to see the black boys and girls learning trades, 
actually erecting the school building, raising the 
stock, running the farms, cooking the meals, and 
doing everything else which was necessary to help 
educate themselves, and improve the school. 

By that time Washington had become a noted 
orator. He had lectured in America and abroad 
about his work at Tuskegee, and thereby he had at- 
tracted the attention of thousands of people to his 
oratorical talent. But his work as an educator sur- 
passed all his other efforts ; he had become great 
King Thrift. For he had taught the Merry Black 
Folk to use their brawn and brains to earn their for- 
tunes. 

King Thrift lived happily for many years. He 



FOR LITTLE FOLK 101 



liked to walk over the campus of Tuskegee and see 
the students learning various trades or industries, 
or studying in other departments. He was married 
three times. In the year 1882, he was married to 
Miss Fannie N. Smith, of West Virginia; she died 
two years afterwards and left a little daughter. In 
1885, he was married to Miss Olivia Davidson, of 
Virginia, who became the devoted mother of two 
sons. After her death in the year 1889, he was mar- 
ried to an excellent lady from Mississippi. 

Thus King Thrift served the world until the four- 
teenth of November, in the year 1915. On that day 
he left the beautiful world whose resources were the 
fortunes that he had taught his people, the Merry 
Black Folk, to dig from the ground. 

Thousands of people mourned for him, and in the 
year 1922, thousands of people helped raise a splen- 
did monument in his honor upon the grounds of the 
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. 

In a speech at the Peace Jubilee in Chicago, Dr. 
Washington said: 

"On an important occasion in the life of the Master, 
when it fell to him to pronounce judgment on two courses 
of action, these memorable words fell from his lips ; 'And 
Mary hath chosen the better part.' This was the supreme 
test in the case of an individual. It is the highest test in 
case of a race or nation. Let us apply the test to the 
American Negro. 

"In the life of our Republic, when he has had the op- 
portunity to choose, has it been the better or the worse 
part ? When in the childhood of this nation the Negro was 
asked to submit to slavery or choose death and extinction, as 



102 S TORIES OF BLACK FOLK 

did the aborigines, he chose the better part, that which 
perpetuated the race. 

"When in 1776, the Negro was asked to decide between 
British oppression and American independence, we find him 
choosing the better part, and Crispus Attucks, a Negro, was 
the first to shed his blood on State Street, Boston, that the 
white people might enjoy liberty forever, though his race 
remained in slavery. 

"When in 1814, at New Orleans, the test of patriotism 
came again, we find the Negro choosing the better part, and 
General Andrew Jackson himself testifying that no heart 
was more loyal and no arm more strong and useful in de- 
fense of righteousness. 

"When the long and memorable struggle came between 
union and separation, when we knew the victory on one hand 
meant freedom, and defeat on the other his continued en- 
slavement, with the full knowledge of the portentous mean- 
ing of it all, when the suggestion and temptation came to 
burn the home and massacre wife and children during the 
absence of the master in battle, and thus insure his liberty, 
we find him choosing the better part, and for four long 
years protecting and supporting the helpless, defenseless 
ones entrusted to his care. 

"When in 1863 the cause of the Union seemed to quiver 
in the balance, and when there were doubt and distrust, 
the Negro was asked to come to the rescue in arms, and the 
valor displayed at Fort Wagner and Port Pillow testifies 
most eloquently again that the Negro chose the better part. 

"When a few months ago the safety and honor of the 
Republic were threatened by a foreign foe, when the wail 
and anguish of the oppressed from a distance reached his 
ears, we find the Negro forgetting his own wrongs, forget- 
ting the laws and customs that discriminated against him 
in his own country, again choosing the better part — the 
part of honor and humanity. And if you would know how 
he deported himself in the field at Santiago, apply for an 
answer to Shaffer and Roosevelt and Wheeler. Let them 



FOR LITTLE F OLK 103 

tell how the Negro faced death and laid down his life in de- 
fense of honor and humanity, and when you have gotten the 
full story of the heroic conduct of the Negro in the Spanish- 
American war — heard it from the lips of Northern soldiers 
and Southern soldiers, from ex-abolitionists and ex-masters 
— then decide within yourselves whether a race that is thus 
willing to die for its country should not be given 1 he highest 
opportunity to live for its country." 



Pictures 

Copies of the beautiful pictures 
appearing in this book, mounted 
on cards 6x9 inches, ready for 
framing, or suitable for school- 
room decoration without framing, 
may be had in lots of three or more, 
postpaid, at 25 cents per picture. 

A. B. CALDWELL PUBLISHING CO. 
Atlanta, Georgia 



84 94 





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